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Adventurings  in  the  Psychical 

331  pages.  12mo.  Cloth.  $L35/ie^ 

A  review  of  the  results  of  modern  psychical  research  in.  the 
realm  of  the  abnormal  and  the  seemingly  supernormal.  Its 
especial  purpose  is  to  make  clear  their  bearings  on  the  nature 
and  possibilities  of  mankind,  and  to  contribute  something 
towards  a  wider  knowledge  of  the  progress  science  is  making 
in  revealing  the  real  causes  of  such  phenomena.  Especially 
has  the  author  brought  out  the  exceedingly  practical  charac- 
ter of  many  of  these  discoveries,  by  which  the  world  has  been 
a  rich  gainer. 


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ADVENTURINGS    IN    THE    PSYCHICAL 


OTHER  BOOKS  BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

PSYCHOLOGICAL 

Scientific  Mental  Healing 

Historic  Ghosts  and  Ghost  Hunters 

The  Riddle  of  Personality 


HISTORICAL 

Woman  in  the  Making  of  America 
Daniel  Boone  and  the  Wilderness  Road 
The  Romance  of  American  Expansion 


Adventurings  in   the 
Psychical 


BY 
H.    ADDINGTON    BRUCE 


BOSTON 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY 

1914 


9  2  o  ^j  4 


Co'gyright,  1914, 
By  Little,  Brown,  and  Company. 

All  rights  reserved 


Published,  April,  1914 


THE   COLONIAL   PRESS 
C.   H.   8IMONDS   &    CO.,   BOSTON,   TJ.  8.  A. 


-T' 


'■r  '^.. 


PREFACE 

THE  present  volume  is  somewhat  in  the  nature 
of  a  sequel  to  "  The  Riddle  of  Personality," 
published  six  years  ago.    In  that  book  I  reviewed 
the  results  of  modern  psychological  research  in 
the   realm   of  the   abnormal   and   the  seemingly 
i\     supernormal,  with  the  special  purpose  of  making 
^     clear  their  bearings  on  the  problem  of  the  nature 
and   possibilities   of   man.     Having   this   special 
purpose  in  mind,  it  was  inadvisable  to  attempt 
^    any  topical  and  detailed  treatment  of  the  phe- 
£     nomena  made  the  subject  of  scientific  investiga- 
^     tion.     Such  a  method  of  treatment,  no  matter 
V    how  it  might  have  added  to  the  interest  of  the 
■^     book,   would  inevitably  have  obscured  its  mes- 
sage to  the  reader. 

Now,  however,  I  have  undertaken  this  very 
thing,  in  the  hope  both  of  reinforcing  the  view 
of  personality  set  forth  in  the  earlier  work,  and 
of  contributing  something  towards  a  wider  knowl- 

[v] 


PREFACE 

edge  of  the  progress  science  is  making  in  the 
naturahzation  of  the  supernatural,  to  borrow  Mr. 
Frank  Podmore's  happy  phrase.  Especially  have 
I  tried  to  bring  out  the  exceedingly  practical 
character  of  many  of  the  discoveries  made  by 
those  scientists  who,  despite  the  often  contemp- 
tuous criticism  of  their  colleagues,  have  valiantly 
persisted  in  their  adventurings  in  the  psychical. 
The  world  has  undoubtedly  been  the  gainer,  and 
richly  the  gainer,  by  their  labors;  and  it  surely 
is  well  worth  while  to  survey  in  some  detail  the 
field  they  have  explored  and  the  results  of  their 
explorations. 

H.  Addington  Bruce. 

Cambeidge,  Massachxtsetts, 
February,  1914. 


VI 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

Preface        v 

I.     Ghosts  and  their  Meaning  ...  1 

II.     Why  I  Believe  in  Telepathy      .       .  58 

III.  Clairvoyance  and  Crystal-Gazing     .  102 

IV.  Automatic  Speaking  and  Writing      .  1S4 
V.     Poltergeists  and  Mediums    .        .       .  171 

VI.     The  Subconscious 201 

VII.     Dissociation  and  Disease      .        .       .  230 

VIII.     The  Singular  Case  of  BCA         .       .  265 

IX.    The  Larger  Self 290 

Index 315 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE 
PSYCHICAL 

CHAPTER  I 

GHOSTS   AND    THEIR   MEANING 

A  WITTY  Frenchwoman  was  once  asked  if 
she  beheved  in  ghosts. 

"  No,  not  at  all,"  was  her  reply.  "  But  I  am 
terribly  afraid  of  them."    ' 

Most  people  feel  precisely  this  way  about 
ghosts,  though  few  are  candid  enough  to  ac- 
knowledge it.  In  broad  daylight,  or  when  seated 
before  a  cheery  fire  among  a  group  of  congenial 
friends,  it  is  easy  to  be  skeptical,  and  to  regard 
ghosts  as  mere  products  of  imagination,  super- 
stition, credulity,  hysteria,  or  indigestion.  But 
it  is  notorious  that  even  the  most  skeptical  are 
liable  to  creepy  sensations  and  sometimes  outright 
panic  if  they  experience  "  uncanny  "  sights  or 
sounds  in  the  darkness  of  the  night,  or  in  lonely, 

[1] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

uninhabited  places.  Churchyards  have  never 
been  popular  resorts  of  those  who  go  for  a  stroll 
in  the  cool  of  the  evening.  And  let  a  house  once 
get  the  reputation  of  being  "  haunted,"  it  is  next 
to  impossible  to  find  tenants  for  it. 

Yet  this  almost  universal  attitude  is  entirely 
and  fundamentally  wrong.  There  is  no  reason 
for  being  afraid  of  ghosts,  and  there  are  many 
reasons  for  believing  in  them. 

I  do  not,  of  course,  mean  to  say  that  all  ghosts 
are  real  ghosts.  There  are  plenty  of  bogus  ghosts, 
and  there  always  will  be,  as  long  as  men  eat  and 
drink  too  much,  play  practical  jokes  on  one  an- 
other, and  allow  their  houses  to  become  run  down 
and  infested  by  rats  and  mice. 

A  single  rat,  scampering  at  midnight  over  the 
loose  planks  of  an  old  attic,  has  often  been  quite 
sufficient  to  produce  a  counterfeit  "  poltergeist," 
or  troublesome  ghost,  of  a  highly  impressive  char- 
acter. So,  too,  a  pillow-slip  swaying  from  a 
clothesline  is  apt  to  seem  most  ghostly  to  a  gentle- 
man returning  home  from  a  late  supper.  Ghosts, 
like  much  else  in  this  amazing  world  of  ours,  have 
to  be  pretty  sharply  scrutinized. 

[2] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

And  the  point  is  that,  after  centuries  of  con- 
temptuous neglect,  they  have  at  last  been  made 
the  subject  of  investigation  by  men  and  women 
competent  for  the  task  —  persons  trained  in  the 
cautious  methods  of  scientific  inquiry,  and  in- 
sisting upon  the  strictest  evidential  standards, 
but  devoid  of  prejudice  or  prepossession.  Their 
researches  are  still  in  progress,  but  they  have 
already  demonstrated  that  amid  a  multitude  of 
sham  ghosts/there  are  perfectly  authentic  appari- 
tions, displaying  credentials  too  convincing  to  be 
denied./ 

What  is  still  more  important,  the  labors  of  these 
scientific  ghostologists  —  especially  of  those  en- 
rolled in  the  famous  English  Society  for  Psychical 
Research  —  have  also  resulted  in  throwing  much 
light  on  the  nature,  origin,  and  habits  of  real  ghosts. 

Usually,  it  seems,  a  genuine  ghost  is  seen  or 
heard  but  once  or  twice,  and  then,  having  ac- 
complished its  purpose,  it  departs  to  return  no 
more.  But  there  are  plenty  of  well-attested  cases 
in  which  a  ghost  attaches  itself  to  a  house  or 
family,  and  keeps  up  its  haunting  for  years,  some- 
times for  centuries. 

[3] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Take,  for  example,  an  experience  that  befell 
Miss  Goodrich-Freer,  at  the  time  a  most  active 
member  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  in 
Hampton  Court  Palace.  This  old  building  is 
unquestionably  one  of  the  most  famous  of  all 
haunted  houses.  It  dates  back  to  the  time  of 
the  first  Tudors,  and  according  to  tradition  is 
haunted  by  several  ghosts,  notably  the  ghosts  of 
Jane  Seymour,  Henry  VIII's  third  queen;  Catha- 
rine Howard,  whose  spirit  is  said  to  go  shrieking 
along  the  gallery  where  she  vainly  begged  brutal 
King  Henry  to  spare  her  life;  and  Sybil  Penn, 
King  Edward  VI's  foster-mother.  Twice  of  late 
years  the  Howard  ghost  —  or  something  that 
passed  for  it  —  has  been  heard,  once  by  Lady 
Eastlake,  and  once  by  Mrs.  Cavendish  Boyle. 
The  latter  was  sleeping  in  an  apartment  next  to 
the  haunted  gallery  —  which  has  long  been  un- 
occupied and  used  only  as  a  storeroom  for  old 
pictures  —  when  she  was  suddenly  awakened  by 
a  loud  and  most  unearthly  shriek  proceeding 
from  that  quarter,  followed  immediately  by  per- 
fect silence.  Lady  Eastlake's  experience  was 
exactly  similar. 

[4] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

Both  ladies,  of  course,  may  have  heard  a  real 
shriek,  possibly  coming  from  some  nightmare- 
tormented  occupant  of  the  palace.  But  no  ex- 
planation of  this  sort  is  adequate  in  the  case  of 
Miss  Goodrich-Freer,  who  passed  a  night  at 
Hampton  Court  for  the  sole  purpose  of  ascertain- 
ing whether  or  not  there  was  any  foundation  for 
its  ghostly  legends. 

The  room  she  selected  for  her  vigil  was  one 
especially  reputed  to  be  haunted,  and  opened  into 
a  second  room,  the  door  between  the  two,  how- 
ever, being  blocked  by  a  heavy  piece  of  furniture. 
Thus  the  only  means  of  entrance  into  her  room 
was  by  a  door  from  the  corridor,  and  this  she 
locked  and  bolted.  After  which,  feeling  confident 
that  nothing  but  a  real  ghost  could  get  in  to 
trouble  her,  she  settled  down  to  read  an  essay  on 
"  Shall  We  Degrade  Our  Standard  of  Value?  " 
a  subject  manifestly  free  from  matters  likely  to 
occasion  nervousness. 

In  fact,  the  essay  was  so  dull  that  by  half  past 
one  Miss  Goodrich-Freer,  not  able  to  keep  awake 
longer,  undressed,  dropped  into  bed,  and  was 
almost  instantly  asleep.     Several  hours  later  she 

[5] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

was  aroused  by  a  noise  as  of  some  one  opening 
the  furniture-barricaded  door.  At  this  she  put 
out  her  hand  to  reach  a  match-box  which  she 
knew  was  lying  on  a  table  at  the  head  of  the  bed. 

"  I  did  not  reach  the  matches,"  she  reports. 
"  It  seemed  to  me  that  a  detaining  hand  was  laid 
on  mine.  I  withdrew  it  quickly  and  gazed  around 
into  the  darkness.  Some  minutes  passed  in  black- 
ness and  silence.  I  had  the  sensation  of  a  presence 
in  the  room,  and  finally,  mindful  of  the  tradition 
that  a  ghost  should  be  spoken  to,  I  said  gently: 
*  Is  any  one  there .'^  Can  I  do  anything  for  you?  ' 
I  remembered  that  the  last  person  who  enter- 
tained the  ghost  had  said:  '  Go  away,  I  don't 
want  you,'  and  I  hoped  that  my  visitor  would 
admire  my  better  manners  and  be  responsive. 
However,  there  was  no  answer,  no  sound  of  any 
kind." 

Now  Miss  Goodrich-Freer  left  the  bed  and  felt 
all  around  the  room  in  the  dark,  until  satisfied 
that  she  was  alone.  The  corridor  door  was  still 
locked  and  bolted;  the  piece  of  furniture  against 
the  inner  door  was  in  place.  So  she  returned  to 
bed.    Almost  at  once  a  soft  light  began  to  glow 

[61 


GHOSTS  AND   THEIR  MEANING 

with  increasing  brightness.  It  seemed  to  radiate 
from  a  central  point,  which  gradually  took  form 
and  became  a  tall,  slender  woman,  moving  slowly 
across  the  room.  At  the  foot  of  the  bed  she 
stopped,  so  that  the  amazed  observer  had  time  to 
examine  her  profile  and  general  appearance. 

"  Her  face,"  Miss  Goodrich-Freer  says,  "  was 
insipidly  pretty,  that  of  a  woman  from  thirty  to 
thirty-five  years  of  age,  her  figure  slight,  her  dress 
of  a  soft,  dark  material,  having  a  full  skirt  and 
broad  sash  or  soft  waistband  tied  high  up  almost 
under  her  arms,  a  crossed  or  draped  handkerchief 
over  the  shoulders  and  sleeves  which  I  noticed 
fitted  very  tight  below  the  elbow.  In  spite  of  all 
this  definiteness  I  was  conscious  that  the  figure 
was  unsubstantial,  and  felt  quite  guilty  of  ab- 
surdity in  asking  once  more:  '  Will  you  let  me 
help  you?    Can  I  be  of  any  use  to  you?  ' 

"  My  voice  sounded  preternaturally  loud,  but 
I  felt  no  surprise  at  noticing  that  it  produced  no 
effect  upon  my  visitor.  She  stood  still  for  perhaps 
two  minutes,  though  it  is  very  difficult  to  estimate 
time  on  such  occasions.  Then  she  raised  her 
hands,  which  were  long  and  white,  and  held  them 

[7] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN   THE   PSYCHICAL 

before  her  as  she  sank  upon  her  knees  and  slowly 
buried  her  face  in  the  palms  in  an  attitude  of 
prayer  —  when  quite  suddenly  the  light  went 
out,  and  I  was  alone  in  the  darkness. 

"  I  felt  that  the  scene  was  ended,  the  curtain 
drawn,  and  had  no  hesitation  in  lighting  the  candle 
at  my  side.  .  .  .  The  clock  struck  four." 

Again  investigation  showed  that  the  corridor 
door  was  locked  and  bolted  as  she  had  left  it,  and 
the  inner  door  still  firmly  barricaded.  Conse- 
quently, skeptical  though  she  had  been  when 
she  arrived  at  Hampton  Court  Palace,  Miss  Good- 
rich-Freer  in  leaving  it  entertained  no  doubt  that 
she  had  witnessed  a  genuine  psychical  manifes- 
tation. 

The  same  conclusion  was  forced  upon  two 
ladies.  Miss  Elizabeth  Morison  and  Miss  Frances 
Lamont,  in  connection  with  a  visit  paid  by  them 
to  another  famous  haunted  house,  the  Petit 
Trianon  at  Versailles,  the  favorite  summer  home 
of  that  unfortunate  queen  Marie  Antoinette, 
whose  ghost,  as  well  as  the  ghosts  of  her  attend- 
ants, has  long  been  alleged  to  be  visible  at  times 
in  and  around  it.    Miss  Morison  and  Miss  Lamont 

[8] 


GHOSTS   AND   THEIR   MEANING 

had  been  sightseeing  in  the  royal  palace,  but 
tiring  of  this  had  set  off,  in  the  early  afternoon, 
to  walk  to  the  Trianon.  Neither  of  them  knew 
just  where  it  was  located,  but  taking  the  general 
direction  indicated  on  Baedeker's  map,  they 
finally  came  to  a  broad  drive,  which,  had  they 
only  known  it,  would  have  led  them  directly  to 
their  destination.  As  it  was,  they  crossed  the 
drive  and  went  up  a  narrow  lane  through  a  thick 
wood  to  a  point  where  three  paths  diverged.  Here 
they  began  to  have  a  series  of  experiences  which, 
comparatively  insignificant  in  themselves,  had  a 
sequel  so  amazing  that  it  would  be  incredible 
were  it  not  that  the  veracity  of  both  ladies  has 
been  established  beyond  question. 

Ahead  of  them,  on  the  middle  path,  they  saw 
two  men  clad  in  curious,  old-fashioned  costumes 
of  long,  greenish  coats,  knee  breeches,  and  small, 
three-cornered  hats.  Taking  them  for  gardeners, 
they  asked  to  be  shown  the  way,  and  were  told 

1  In  a  prefatory  note  to  the  book,  "  An  Adventure,"  in  which 
these  ladies  detail  their  experience,  their  publishers,  Messrs. 
Macmillan  and  Company,  of  London,  guarantee  "  that  the 
authors  have  put  down  what  happened  to  them  as  faithfully 
and  accurately  as  was  in  their  power."  Their  good  faith  is  also 
vouched  for  by  a  reviewer  in  The  Spectator. 

[91 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE   PSYCHICAL 

to  go  straight  ahead.  This  brought  them  to  a 
little  clearing  that  had  in  it  a  light  garden  kiosk, 
circular  and  like  a  bandstand,  near  which  a  man 
was  seated.  As  they  approached,  he  turned  his 
head  and  stared  at  them,  and  his  expression  was 
so  repellent  that  they  felt  greatly  frightened. 
The  next  instant,  coming  from  they  knew  not 
where,  and  breathless  as  if  from  running,  a  second 
man  appeared,  and  speaking  in  French  of  a  pe- 
culiar accent,  ordered  them  brusquely  to  turn  to 
the  right,  saying  that  the  Trianon  lay  in  that 
direction.  Just  as  they  reached  it,  they  were 
again  intercepted,  this  time  by  a  young  man  who 
stepped  out  of  a  rear  door,  banged  it  behind  him, 
and  with  a  somewhat  insolent  air  guided  them  to 
the  main  entrance  of  the  palace. 

While  they  were  hurrying  thither,  Miss  Mori- 
son  noticed  a  lady,  seated  below  a  terrace,  holding 
out  a  paper  as  though  reading  at  arm's  length. 
She  glanced  up  as  they  passed,  and  Miss  Morison, 
observing  with  surprise  the  peculiar  cut  of  her 
gown,  saw  that  she  had  a  pretty  "  though  not 
young  "  face. 

"  I  looked  straight  at  her,"  she  adds  in  the 
[10] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

published  statement  she  has  made  regarding  their 
adventure,  "  but  some  indescribable  feehng  made 
me  turn  away,  disturbed  at  her  being  there." 

Afterwards  this  "  indescribable  feeling "  was 
accounted  for  when  Miss  Morison  identified  in  a 
rare  portrait  of  Marie  Antoinette  the  lady  she 
had  seen  seated  below  the  terrace! 

Still  more  remarkable,  subsequent  visits  to  the 
Trianon  brought  to  both  ladies  the  startling 
knowledge  that  the  actual  surroundings  of  the 
place  and  the  place  itself  differ  vastly  from  what 
they  saw  that  summer  afternoon.  The  woods 
they  entered  are  not  there,  and  have  not  been 
there  in  the  memory  of  man;  the  paths  they  trod 
have  long  been  effaced ;  there  is  no  kiosk,  nor  does 
anybody  living,  except  Miss  Morison  and  Miss 
Lamont,  remember  having  seen  one  in  the  Tria- 
non grounds;  on  the  very  spot  where  Miss  Mori- 
son saw  the  lady  in  the  pecuHar  dress  a  large  bush 
is  growing;  and  the  rear  door,  out  of  which 
stepped  the  young  man  who  guided  them  around 
to  the  front,  opens  from  an  old  chapel  that  has 
been  in  a  ruinous  condition  for  many  years,  the 
door  itself  being  "  bolted,  barred,  and  cob- 
[111 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

webbed,"  and   unused   since  the   time  of   Marie 
Antoinette. 

On  the  other  hand,  their  personal  researches  in 
the  archives  of  France  have  brought  to  Hght  so 
many  confirmatory  facts  that  both  Miss  Morison 
and  Miss  Lamont  are  firmly  persuaded  that  the 
Trianon,  its  environment,  and  its  people  were 
once  exactly  as  they  appeared  to  them;  and  that 
in  very  truth  they  saw  the  place  as  it  looked,  not 
at  the  time  thej^  first  visited  it,  but  in  the  closing 
years  of  the  French  Monarchy,  more  than  a  cen- 
tury before. 

That  historic  German  ghost,  the  White  Lady  of 
the  Hohenzollerns,  would  likewise  seem  to  have 
more  than  a  legendary  basis.  Her  mission,  ap- 
parently, is  to  announce  the  death  of  some  mem- 
ber of  the  Hohenzollern  family,  and  hfer  most 
frequent  haunting-place  is  the  royal  palace  at 
Berlin.  She  was  seen  as  early  as  1628,  and  since 
the  time  of  Frederick  the  Great  her  appearance 
has  been  regularly  chronicled  on  the  eve  of  the 
death  of  the  King  of  Prussia. 

For  the  matter  of  that,  there  are  not  a  few 
families  whose  ancestral  homes,  according  to  tra- 

[121 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

dition,  are  haunted  by  death-announcing  ghosts. 
This  is  particularly  the  case  with  certain  distin- 
guished British  families.  Two  white  owls  perching 
on  the  roof  of  the  family  mansion  are  taken  as  a 
sure  omen  of  death  in  the  Arundel  of  Wardour 
family.  The  Yorkshire  Middletons,  a  Catholic 
family,  are  said  to  be  warned  of  approaching  death 
by  the  apparition  of  a  Benedictine  nun.  Equally 
noteworthy  as  a  spectral  messenger  of  tragedy 
is  the  so-called  Drummer  of  Cortachy  Castle,  a 
Scottish  ghost  that  haunts  the  ancient  stronghold 
of  the  Ogilvys,  Earls  of  Airlie,  but  is  in  evidence 
only  when  an  Ogilvy  is  about  to  die. 

The  story  goes  that,  hundreds  of  years  ago, 
when  the  Scots  were  little  better  than  barbarians, 
a  Highland  chieftain  sent  a  drummer  to  Cortachy 
Castle  with  a  message  that  was  not  at  all  to  the 
liking  of  the  Ogilvy  of  that  time.  As  an  appro- 
priate token  of  his  displeasure,  he  seized  the 
luckless  drummer,  stuffed  him  into  his  drum  — 
he  must  have  been  a  very  small  drummer,  and 
have  carried  a  very  big  drum  —  and  hurled  him 
from  the  topmost  battlements  of  the  castle,  break- 
ing his  neck. 

[131 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Just  before  he  was  tossed  off,  the  drummer 
threatened  to  make  a  ghost  of  himself,  and  haunt 
the  Ogilvys  forevermore.  He  has  been,  it  would 
seem,  as  good  as  his  word.  Every  once  in  a  while 
ghostly  drumming  is  heard  at  Cortachy  Castle, 
and  always  the  death  of  an  Ogilvy  follows.  An 
especially  impressive  account  of  one  instance  of 
this  peculiar  and  most  unpleasant  haunting  has 
been  left  by  a  Miss  Dalrymple,  who  happened  to 
be  a  guest  at  Cortachy  during  Christmas  week  of 
1844. 

It  was  her  first  visit  to  the  Castle,  and  she  was 
entirely  unaware  of  the  existence  of  the  family 
ghost.  On  the  evening  of  her  arrival,  while  dress- 
ing for  dinner,  she  was  startled  by  hearing  under 
her  window  music  like  the  muffled  beating  of  a 
drum.  She  looked  out,  but  could  see  nothing,  and 
presently  the  drumming  died  away.  For  the  time 
she  thought  no  more  of  it,  but  at  dinner  she 
turned  to  her  host,  the  Earl  of  Airlie,  and  asked: 

"  My  lord,  who  is  your  drummer?  " 

His  lordship  made  no  reply.  Lady  Airlie  became 
exceedingly  pale,  and  several  of  the  company, 
all  of  whom  had  heard  the  question,  looked  em- 

[141 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR   MEANING 

barrassed.  Realizing  that  she  had  made  a  shp 
of  some  sort.  Miss  Dalrymple  quickly  changed  the 
subject,  but  after  dinner,  naturally  feeling  some- 
what curious,  she  brought  it  up  with  one  of  the 
younger  members  of  the  family,  and  was  an- 
swered : 

"  What !  Have  you  never  heard  of  the  Drummer 
of  Cortachy?  " 

"  No,"  said  she.     "  Who  in  the  world  is  he?  " 

"  Why,  he  is  a  person  who  goes  about  playing 
his  drum  whenever  there  is  a  death  impending 
in  our  family.  The  last  time  he  was  heard  was 
shortly  before  the  death  of  the  late  countess,  the 
earl's  first  wife,  and  that  is  why  Lady  Airlie  turned 
so  pale  when  you  mentioned  it." 

The  next  night  Miss  Dalrymple  heard  the 
drumming  again,  and,  falling  into  a  panic  when 
she  learned  that  nobody  else  had  heard  it,  hur- 
riedly left  Cortachy  Castle.  But  the  drumming 
was  not  for  her.  True  to  tradition,  the  drummer 
was  concerned  only  with  announcing  the  death  of 
an  Ogilvy,  one  of  whom,  the  Lady  Airlie  who  had 
been  so  disturbed  by  Miss  Dalrymple's  question, 
died  soon  afterward  while  on  a  visit  to  Brighton. 
fl51 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Five  years  later  the  drumming  was  once  more 
heard,  this  time  by  an  Englishman  who  had  been 
invited  to  spend  a  few  days  with  the  Earl  of 
Airlie's  oldest  son.  Lord  Ogilvy,  at  a  shooting 
box  near  Cortachy.  Crossing  a  gloomy  moor, 
in  company  with  an  old  Highlander,  the  English- 
man suddenly  stopped,  and,  with  a  look  of  amaze- 
ment, exclaimed: 

"  What  can  a  band  be  doing  in  this  lonely 
place?  Has  Lord  Ogilvy  brought  a  band  with 
him?  " 

The  Highlander  glanced  at  him  strangely. 

"  I  hear  naething,"  he  said. 

"  Why,  yes,  can't  you  hear  it?  A  band  playing 
in  the  distance  —  or  at  any  rate,  somebody  plaj^- 
ing  a  drum." 

"  An'  is  it  a  drum  ye  hear?  "  cried  the  High- 
lander.    "  Then  'tis  something  no  canny." 

In  another  moment  the  lighted  windows  of  the 
shooting  box  came  into  view,  and  the  English- 
man hastened  forward,  fully  expecting  to  have 
the  mystery  solved.  But  he  found  no  musicians 
—  only  a  scene  of  considerable  confusion.  Lord 
Ogilvy,  it  appeared,  had  just  started  for  London, 

[161 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

summoned  by  news  that  his  father  was  danger- 
ously ill. 

And  the  very  next  day,  as  the  Englishman's 
Highlander  guide  was  not  at  all  surprised  to 
learn,  the  Earl  of  Airlie  died. 

Of  all  family  ghosts,  however,  none  is  so  strongly 
substantiated  by  documentary  ^  evidence  as  the 
Knocking  Ghost  of  the  Basil  Woodds,  an  old 
English  family.  This  ghost  began  operations 
about  the  time  of  the  Stuart  Restoration,  and  it 
is  alleged  has  ever  since  continued  to  announce, 
by  three  or  more  loud  knocks,  the  approaching 
death  of  a  Basil  Woodd.  First-hand  and  thor- 
oughly trustworthy  accounts  are  extant  of  its 
activity  in  quite  recent  times. 

December  15,  1893,  Mr.  Charles  H.  L.  Woodd 
died  at  Hampstead,  England,  after  a  brief  illness. 
The  night  before  he  died  the  Knocking  Ghost 
was  heard  by  two  persons,  at  Hampstead  by  his 
daughter,  and  in  London  by  his  son,  the  Reverend 
Trevor  Basil  Woodd.  Both  have  made  state- 
ments describing  their  singular  experiences. 

1  The  documents  in  this  case  are  published  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  xi,  pp.  538-542. 

[17] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

"  On  Thursday  evening,  December  14,  1893, 
after  church,"  says  the  Reverend  Mr.  Woodd, 
"  I  was  sitting  before  my  fire.  I  knew  my  father 
was  ill,  and  had  a  presentiment  that  he  was 
dangerously  ill,  though  if  I  had  known  this  I 
should  have  remained  at  Hampstead,  where  I 
had  been  that  day.  As  I  sat,  I  distinctly  heard 
three  knocks,  perhaps  more,  like  the  sound  of 
some  one  emptying  a  tobacco  pipe  upon  the  bars 
of  my  fire  grate. 

"  Thinking  it  might  be  a  warning,  I  did  not  go 
to  bed  for  an  hour,  fearing  I  would  be  sent  for. 
At  one  A.  M.  I  was  awakened  by  a  ringing  of  the 
front  door-bell  and  knocking.  It  was  my  father's 
butler,  who  told  me  the  doctor  had  sent  for  me, 
as  my  father  was  very  ill.  I  said  to  my  house- 
keeper : 

"  '  I  must  go.  I  feel  sure  that  my  father  is 
dying,  because  I  heard  the  Woodd  knocks,  as  I 
sat  in  my  chair  before  going  to  bed.' 

"  On  my  arrival  my  first  question  was:    '  Is  he 
still  alive  .'^  '  for  I  believed  he  must  have  passed 
away  at  the  time  of  the  knocking.     He  died  at 
eight-forty-five  next  morning." 
[181 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

Mr.  Woodd's  housekeeper  corroborates  this 
statement.  As  to  the  knocking  heard  at  Hamp- 
stead,  the  daughter,  Mrs.  Winifred  Dumbell, 
testifies : 

"  On  December  14,  1893,  Thursday  morning, 
hearing  my  father,  Mr.  Charles  Woodd,  was  not 
well,  I  left  Epsom,  where  I  had  been  staying,  for 
Hampstead,  and  found  my  father  in  bed  and 
very  weak,  but  I  was  in  no  way  anxious  about 
him,  as  I  did  not  suppose  him  to  be  seriously  ill. 
At  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  being  tired  and  finding 
I  could  not  assist  my  mother  or  the  nurse,  I  lay 
down  in  an  adjoining  room,  leaving  the  door 
wide  open,  and  fell  asleep. 

"  In  a  short  time  I  was  suddenly  awakened  by 
a  loud  rapping  as  if  at  the  door.  I  jumped  up 
and  ran  into  the  passage,  thinking  my  mother 
had  called  me.  I  listened  at  the  door  of  my  father's 
room,  but  no  one  was  moving.  I  lay  down  again 
and  instantly  fell  asleep,  when  exactly  the  same 
thing  occurred.  I  did  not  actually  sleep  again, 
and  cannot  say  whether  any  sound  made  me  get 
up  the  third  time,  but  I  went  in  search  of  the 
doctor  and  gathered  that  he  was  anxious  about 
fl91 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

my  father,  who  was  getting  much  weaker.  We 
were  all  aroused,  and  about  eight  o'clock  a.  m.  my 
father  died. 

"  I  did  not  connect  this  rapping  with  the 
Woodd  warning,  as  all  was  so  sudden  and  unex- 
pected, but  on  mentioning  it  at  breakfast  the 
next  morning  to  my  brother,  the  Reverend  Trevor 
Basil  Woodd,  he  told  me  he  also  heard  a  similar 
warning  in  his  rooms  at  Vauxhall  Bridge  Road 
about  the  same  time." 

To  mention  only  one  other  of  the  many  in- 
stances that  might  be  cited,  the  Knocking  Ghost 
was  again  heard  on  June  3,  1895,  just  twenty-four 
hours  before  the  death  of  Mr.  Thomas  Basil 
Woodd  at  Hampstead.  Again,  too,  it  was  heard 
by  more  than  one  person  and  in  more  than  one 
place,  by  Mr.  Woodd's  daughters,  Fanny  and 
Kate,  and  by  his  niece.  Miss  Ethel  G.  Woodd, 
who  was  at  the  time  visiting  friends  in  Yorkshire, 
and  at  first  mistook  the  Knocking  Ghost  for 
somebody  hammering  nails  into  the  wall  of  the 
next  room.  Oddly  enough,  this  was  also  the  way 
it  sounded  to  Fanny  Woodd,  in  London,  as  appears 
from  the  following  statement  signed  by  her: 

[201 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

"  On  June  3,  1 895,  at  ten-thirty  p.  m.,  Fanny 
Woodd,  staying  with  Mrs.  Stoney,  83  Wharton 
Road,  West  Kensington,  heard  knocks,  appar- 
ently from  next  door,  as  of  nails  being  hammered 
in  and  pictures  hung,  which  seemed  so  unHkely 
at  that  hour  of  night  that  the  next  morning  she 
mentioned  it  to  Mrs,  Stoney,  whose  bedroom  was 
just  below  hers,  asking  if  she  had  heard  it  or 
could  account  for  it." 

But  Mrs.  Stoney  had  heard  nothing,  and  the 
next-door  neighbor,  Mrs.  Harriet  Taylor,  rather 
tartly  declared  that:  "There  has  been  no  put- 
ting up  of  pictures  or  knocking  of  any  sort 
in  this  house  for  quite  two  years.  We  are 
also  early  risers,  and  are  always  in  bed  and 
asleep  by  ten  p.  m."  That  same  day  Miss 
Woodd  rejoined  her  father  and  sister  in  Hamp- 
stead,  and  was  astonished  to  hear  that  the  latter 
had  been  awakened  about  half  past  ten  the  pre- 
vious night  by  loud  knockings  against  the  win- 
dow shutters. 

A  few  hours  more  and  the  mystery  was  solved 
by  the  startlingly  sudden  death  of  Mr.  Woodd, 
from  an  attack  of  apoplexy.  The  Knocking 
[211 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Ghost  of  the  Basil  Woodds  had  Kved  up  to  its 
reputation. 

The  giving  of  death  warnings  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  family  ghosts,  as  may  be  sufficiently 
indicated  by  relating  an  incident  that  happened 
in  Canada  some  years  ago,  and  that  has  always 
impressed  me  as  one  of  the  best  ghost  stories  I 
have  ever  heard.  It  was  told  me  by  an  actor  in 
the  strange  little  drama,  and  knowing  as  I  do 
the  persons  concerned,  I  have  not  the  slightest 
hesitation  in  vouching  for  its  authenticity,  in- 
credible though  the  reader  may  be  inclined  to 
regard    it. 

In  this  instance  the  ghost  was  seen  by  a  clergy- 
man, the  Reverend  John  Langtry,  who  afterward 
became  a  prominent  dignitary  of  the  English 
Church  in  Canada.  His  home  was  in  Toronto, 
but  on  the  occasion  of  the  ghostly  visitation  he 
was  at  the  house  of  a  IVIr.  and  Mrs.  Ruttan,  who 
lived  with  their  only  child,  a  young  girl,  in 
a  small  town  some  fifty  or  sixty  miles  north  of 
Toronto.  Mr.  Ruttan  was  another  Church  of 
England  clergyman,  and  was  a  warm  friend  of 
Doctor    Langtry's.      This    time,    however,    the 

[221 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

latter  had  journeyed  to  see  him  simply  on  a  mat- 
ter of  diocesan  business,  and  was  anxious  to 
complete  it  and  get  back  to  Toronto. 

To  his  disappointment  he  found  that  Mr. 
Ruttan  had  been  called  out  of  town,  and  would 
not  be  home  until  a  late  hour,  possibly  not  until 
the  following  day.  On  the  chance  that  he  might 
return  earlier  than  expected.  Doctor  Langtry 
accepted  Mrs.  Ruttan's  invitation  to  spend  the 
evening  with  her. 

As  they  were  chatting  together  —  she  being  so 
seated  that  her  back  was  toward  the  door  leading 
from  the  parlor,  whereas  Doctor  Langtry 's  posi- 
tion gave  him  a  full  view  of  the  hall  —  she  noticed 
that  all  at  once  he  stopped  in  the  middle  of  a 
sentence,  leaned  forward,  and  stared  fixedly  into 
the  hall.  She  instantly  turned  her  head,  and 
followed  the  direction  of  his  gaze,  but  could  see 
nothing. 

"  What  is  the  matter.  Doctor  Langtry.'^  "  she 
asked.     "  What  are  you  looking  at.f^  " 

"  Nothing,  nothing,"  he  muttered,  recovering 
himself  with  an  effort.  "  I  fancied  for  a  mo- 
ment —  " 

[23] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN   THE   PSYCHICAL 

He  paused,  then  changed  the  conversation. 
But  Mrs.  Ruttan  —  from  whom  I  got  the  story 
—  saw  that  from  time  to  time  he  glanced  furtively 
into  the  hall,  and  finally  half  rose  from  his  seat, 
his  face  white,  his  limbs  trembling. 

"  Doctor  Langtry!  "  was  her  startled  exclama- 
tion.    "  Are  you  ill.'^    Whatever  is  the  matter  .f^  " 

"  Oh,"  he  said  shortly,  "  it  is  only  a  momentary 
faintness.  I  shall  be  all  right  presently.  The 
fatigue  of  the  journey  must  have  unstrung  me.  I 
will  trouble  you  to  get  me  a  glass  of  water,  and 
then  I  think  I  will  return  to  the  hotel." 

He  drank  the  water,  and  rose  to  go.  But  when 
near  the  front  door,  he  turned  to  Mrs.  Ruttan, 
and  said: 

"  I  don't  believe  I  have  asked  after  your 
daughter.    I  trust  she  is  well.''  " 

"  She  is  quite  well,  thank  you.  I  put  her  to 
bed  just  before  you  came  in." 

With  his  hand  on  the  knob  of  the  door.  Doctor 
Langtry  again  paused  irresolutely. 

"  If  it's  not  too  much  trouble,"  he  asked,  "  I 
wish  you  would  go  up-stairs  and  make  sure  she 
is  all  right  now." 

[24] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

Wondering  at  his  request  and  at  his  manner, 
Mrs.  Ruttan  compHed,  and  presently  returned  to 
report  that  the  child  was  sleeping  peacefully. 
Doctor  Langtry  bowed  with  an  air  of  obvious 
relief,  bade  her  good  night,  and  left  the  house. 
But  next  day,  after  he  had  transacted  his  business, 
and  was  about  to  start  for  Toronto,  he  said  to 
Mr.  Ruttan,  who  had  accompanied  him  to  the 
train : 

"  Ruttan,  if  your  little  girl  should  happen  to 
fall  ill  while  away  from  home,  go  to  her  at  once, 
and  take  Mrs.  Ruttan  with  you,  even  if  you  have 
no  reason  to  feel  that  the  illness  is  serious." 

Mr.  Ruttan  laughed. 

"  Of  course  we  would  go  to  her.  You  may  be 
sure  of  that.    But  why  —  " 

"  Ask  me  no  questions,"  said  Doctor  Langtry, 
"  but  bear  my  request  in  mind  if  the  occasion 
should  arise." 

Within  a  very  short  time  the  child,  visiting  an 
aunt  in  a  near-by  town,  was  taken  ill,  failed 
rapidly,  and  died  almost  before  her  parents,  who 
had  been  hastily  telegraphed  for,  could  reach  her 
bedside.  Doctor  Langtry 's  warning  immediately 
[25] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

recurred  to  them,  and  they  wrote  him,  beseeching 
an  explanation. 

"  The  reason  I  was  anxious  about  your  httle 
girl,"  he  then  told  them,  "  was  because  the  night 
I  was  sitting  with  Mrs.  Ruttan  I  saw  an  angel 
enter  the  hall,  pass  up  the  stairs,  and  return, 
carrying  the  child  in  its  arms." 

But  the  kind  of  ghost  most  frequently  seen  is 
that  which  appears  not  before  but  immediately 
after,  or  coincidental  with,  a  death.  Its  purpose 
is  not  to  give  warning  of  impending  tragedy,  but 
to  convey  the  news  of  a  tragedy  already  consum- 
mated. There  are  thousands  of  instances  of  this 
sort,  so  well  authenticated  as  to  compel  credence. 
Not  long  ago  an  interesting  case  was  reported  to 
me  by  a  gentleman  living  in  Burlington,  Vermont, 
the  nephew  of  the  lady  —  a  Mrs.  Hazard  of  New- 
port, Rhode  Island  — -  who  saw  the  ghost. 

She  was  ill  at  the  time,  and  under  the  care  of 
a  trained  nurse.  One  afternoon,  her  physician 
having  allowed  her  to  sit  up  for  a  couple  of  hours, 
she  was  seated  in  a  chair  by  the  side  of  her  bed, 
when  the  nurse  noticed  her  open  wide  her  eyes 
and  turn  her  head  as  if  following  the  movements 
[26] 


GHOSTS   AND   THEIR   MEANING 

of  some  one.  Then  she  heard  her  say,  in  a  tone  of 
surprise : 

"Hello!  Hello!  There  he  goes!  There  he 
goes! 

As  far  as  the  nurse  could  see,  nobody  was  in 
the  room  with  them.  But,  not  wishing  to  alarm 
her  patient,  she  merely  asked: 

"  Who  is  it,  Mrs.  Hazard.?  " 

"  Chet  Keech.  But  he  doesn't  see  me.  And 
now  he's  gone." 

Later  in  the  day  the  nurse  mentioned  the  inci- 
dent to  Mrs.  Hazard's  daughter,  asking  her  if 
she  knew  anybody  by  the  name  of  Chet  Keech. 

"  Why,  certainly  I  do,"  was  the  reply.  "  He 
is  my  cousin,  and  lives  in  Danielson,  Connecti- 
cut." 

That  day  Chet  Keech  had  died  at  Danielson, 
as  a  letter  informed  the  Hazards  next  morning. 

Consider  also  this  statement^  by  the  Reverend 
C.  C.  McKechnie,  a  Scotch  clergyman: 

"  I  was  about  ten  years  of  age  at  the  time,  and 
had  for  several  years  been  living  with  my  grand- 

^  First  published  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  vol.  x,  p.  240. 

[271 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

father,  who  was  an  elder  in  the  Kirk  of  Scotland 
and  in  good  circumstances.  He  was  very  much 
attached  to  me  and  often  expressed  his  intention 
of  having  me  educated  for  a  minister  in  the  Kirk. 
Suddenly,  however,  he  was  seized  with  an  illness 
which  in  a  couple  of  days  proved  mortal. 

"  At  the  time  of  his  death,  and  without  my 
having  any  apprehension  of  his  end,  I  happened 
to  be  at  my  father's  house,  about  a  mile  off.  I 
was  leaning  in  a  listless  sort  of  way  against  the 
kitchen  table,  looking  upward  at  the  ceiling  and 
thinking  of  nothing  in  particular,  when  my  grand- 
father's face  appeared  to  grow  out  of  the  ceihng, 
at  first  dim  and  indistinct,  but  becoming  more 
and  more  complete  until  it  seemed  in  every  re- 
spect as  full  and  perfect  as  I  had  ever  seen  it. 

"  It  looked  down  upon  me,  as  I  thought,  with 
a  wonderful  expression  of  tenderness  and  affec- 
tion. Then  it  disappeared,  not  suddenly  but 
gradually,  its  features  fading  and  becoming  dim 
and  indistinct,  until  I  saw  nothing  but  the  bare 
ceiling.  I  spoke  at  the  time  of  what  I  saw  to  my 
mother,  but  she  made  no  account  of  it,  thinking, 
probably,    it   was   nothing   more   than    a   boyish 

[281 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

vagary.  But  in  about  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes 
after  seeing  the  vision,  a  boy  came  running  breath- 
less to  my  father's  with  the  news  that  my  grand- 
father had  just  died." 

Even  more  remarkable  was  the  experience  of 
an  Illinois  physician,  Doctor  J.  S.  W.  Entwistle, 
a  resident  of  one  of  the  Chicago  suburbs.  Hurry- 
ing one  morning  to  catch  a  train  Doctor  Entwistle 
saw  approaching  him  an  acquaintance,  once  well- 
to-do,  who  had  ruined  himself  by  drink.  Glan- 
cing at  him  as  they  met,  the  physician  noticed 
that  his  clothing  was  torn  and  his  face  bruised, 
and  that  there  was  a  cut  under  one  eye.  He 
noticed,  too,  that  the  other  kept  looking  steadily 
at  him  with  a  "  woe-begone,  God-forsaken  ex- 
pression." Had  he  not  been  in  such  a  hurry,  he 
would  have  stopped  and  spoken  to  him,  but  as  it 
was  he  passed  him  with  a  nod. 

At  the  station  Doctor  Entwistle  met  his 
brother-in-law,  and  said,  while  the  train  was 
drawing  in: 

"  Oh,  by  the  way,  I  just  saw  Charlie  M.,  and 
he  was  a  sight.  He  must  have  been  on  a  terrible 
tear." 

[29] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

"  I  wonder  what  he's  doing  in  town,  anyway?  " 
commented  the  brother-in-law. 

"  I  suppose  he  was  going  to  see  his  wife." 

"  Not  a  bit  of  it.    She  won't  have  him  around." 

Then  the  subject  was  dropped,  and  nothing 
more  was  said  about  it  until  after  they  had  reached 
Chicago.  Both  men,  as  it  happened,  had  business 
at  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel  and  went  directly 
there  from  the  train.  They  were  met  by  a  mutual 
friend,  who  had  a  copy  of  the  Chicago  Tribune  in 
his  hand. 

"  Hello,"  he  greeted  them.  "  Did  you  know 
that  Charlie  M.  is  dead.^  Here  is  a  notice  in  the 
paper,  stating  that  his  body  is  at  the  morgue.  He 
was  killed  in  a  saloon  fight.  The  paper  hasn't 
got  the  name  quite  right,  but  from  the  description- 
it's  Charlie,  sure  enough." 

"  But  he  can't  be  dead,"  said  Doctor  Entwistle, 
aghast,  "  for  it  was  only  a  few  minutes  ago  that 
I  met  him  on  the  street  in  Englewood." 

Nevertheless,  it  turned  out  that  Charlie  M.  was 
dead,  and  that  his  body  had  been  taken  to  the 
morgue  several  hours  before  Doctor  Entwistle 
thought    he    saw    him    in    the    Chicago    suburb. 

[30] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

Moreover,  on  inquiry  it  was  learned  that  the 
clothes  worn  by  him  when  he  was  killed  and  the 
marks  on  his  face  "  tallied  in  every  particular 
with  the  description  given  by  the  doctor." 

Quite  a  similar  experience  occurred  to  Mr. 
Harry  E.  Reeves  when  he  was  choirmaster  at 
St.  Luke's  Church  in  San  Francisco.  On  a  Friday, 
about  three  in  the  afternoon,  Mr.  Reeves  was  in 
an  up-stairs  room  at  his  home.  He  had  been 
working  on  some  music.  Wishing  to  rest  for  a 
few  minutes,  he  threw  himself  on  a  lounge,  but 
almost  immediately  an  unaccountable  impulse 
led  him  to  get  up  again  and  open  the  door  of  his 
room. 

Standing  at  the  head  of  the  stairs  he  saw  Edwin 
Russell,  a  member  of  his  choir  and  a  well-known 
San  Francisco  real  estate  broker.  Mr.  Russell 
had  promised  to  call  on  him  the  following  day  to 
look  over  the  music  for  Sunday,  and  Mr.  Reeves's 
first  thought  was  that  he  had  come  a  day  earlier 
than  intended.  He  advanced  to  greet  him,  when, 
to  his  amazement  and  horror,  the  figure  on  the 
stairs  turned  as  though  to  descend,  and  then 
faded  into  nothingness. 

[31] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

"My  God!  "  gasped  Reeves,  and  fell  forward. 

A  door  below  was  hastily  opened,  and  two 
women  and  a  man  ran  to  his  aid.  The  women 
were  his  sister  and  niece,  the  man  was  a  Mr. 
Sprague.  They  found  Mr.  Reeves  seated  on  the 
stairs,  his  face  white  and  covered  with  perspira- 
tion, his  body  trembling. 

"Uncle  Harry!"  cried  the  niece.  "What  in 
the  world  is  the  matter  .f*  " 

Mr.  Reeves  was  in  such  a  panic  that  he  could 
hardly  speak,  but  he  managed  to  reply : 

"  I  have  seen  a  ghost!  " 

"  Whose  ghost.f*  "  inquired  Mr.  Sprague,  with 
a  skeptical  smile. 

"  The  ghost  of  Edwin  Russell." 

Instantly  the  smile  left  Mr.  Sprague's  face. 

"  That's  strange,"  said  he,  "  that's  very  strange. 
For,  as  these  ladies  will  tell  you,  I  came  to  consult 
with  you  regarding  the  music  for  Mr.  Russell's 
funeral.  He  had  a  stroke  of  apoplexy  this  morn- 
ing, and  died  a  few  hours  ago."  ^ 

Sometimes  ghosts  of  this  type  present  them- 

1  Detailed  reports  of  this  case  are  published  in  the  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  viii,  pp.  214-218. 

[32] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

selves  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  no  doubt  as  to  the 
fact  and  manner  of  the  death  of  the  person  seen. 
As  striking  a  case  in  point  as  has  come  to  my 
knowledge  is  afforded  by  the  singular  experience 
of  an  old  friend  of  mine,  Edward  Jackson,  son 
of  the  late  General  Jackson,  of  Bideford,  Eng- 
land. 

Born  in  India,  Jackson  was  from  his  boyhood 
of  a  roving  and  adventurous  disposition.  He 
went  in  for  all  forms  of  athletics,  more  particu- 
larly boxing,  cricket,  and  polo,  and  before  he  left 
India  was  one  of  the  best  known  and  most  popu- 
lar men  in  the  younger  sporting  set. 

He  was  still  in  his  early  twenties  when  he  came 
to  the  United  States,  drifting  West  to  go  on  a 
ranch  in  Wyoming.  Tiring  of  this,  though  not 
of  his  fondness  for  adventure,  he  found  work  in  a 
Lake  Superior  mine,  where  his  quickly  demon- 
strated ability  to  take  care  of  himself  in  a  rough- 
and-tumble  encounter  won  him  the  position  of 
superintendent  over  a  gang  of  men  whom  it  had 
hitherto  been  most  difficult  to  superintend. 

As  superintendent  he  was  privileged  to  live  by 
himself  in   a  small,   two-room    cabin,   somewhat 

[33] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

neater  and  more  comfortable  than  the  ordinary 
sleeping-shacks.  It  was  in  this  cabin  that  he  saw 
the  ghost. 

"  I  had  returned  from  the  mine  one  evening, 
thoroughly  tired  out,"  he  said,  in  telling  me  the 
story,  "  and  sat  down  to  rest  for  a  few  minutes 
before  an  open  fire.  While  I  was  sitting  there, 
half  dozing,  I  felt  a  cold  current  of  air,  and  looked 
up,  thinking  that  somebody  had  thrown  the  door 
open. 

"  The  door  was  not  open,  but  standing  between 
me  and  it  was  the  figure  of  a  young  man  whom  I 
instantly  recognized  as  a  boyhood  chum  in  India. 
He  was  dressed  in  polo  costume  —  we  had  often 
played  the  game  together  —  but  for  a  moment  I 
forgot  all  about  the  incongruity  between  his  dress 
and  the  rough,  outlandish  place  in  which  I  then 
saw  him.     I  jumped  up,  exclaiming: 

"  '  By  Jove,  Jack,  I'm  glad  to  see  you.  When 
did  you  get  hercf^    And  how  —  ' 

"  I  stopped.  He  had  been  standing  with  his 
profile  toward  me.  Now  he  turned,  facing  me, 
and  I  saw  that  he  was  ghastly  white,  with  a  deep 
cut  over  one  eye.     Without  a  word  he  walked 

[34] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR   MEANING 

past  me,  gazing  at  me  solemnly,  and  disappeared 
in  the  inner  room. 

"  I  don't  think  I  am  a  coward,  but  I  confess 
that  for  a  moment  I  felt  faint.  Recovering,  and 
believing  that  somebody  must  be  playing  me  a 
trick,  I  made  a  dash  after  him. 

"  There  was  no  one  there  —  and  no  way  in 
which  anybody  could  have  got  out  unknown  to 
me. 

"  That  night  I  wrote  to  my  father,  telling  him 
what  had  happened.  In  his  reply  he  informed  me 
that  my  friend  had  been  killed  the  same  day  that 
I  saw  him  in  my  cabin  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Su- 
perior. He  had  been  playing  polo  in  far-away 
India,  had  been  thrown  from  his  horse,  and  had 
struck  on  his  head,  sustaining  a  wound  similar 
to  that  I  had  seen  in  my  vision." 

Of  a  somewhat  different  order,  and  at  once 
recalling  to  mind  the  adventure  of  Miss  Morison 
and  Miss  Lamont  at  the  Petit  Trianon,  is  an  in- 
stance reported  by  an  Englishwoman  whose  name 
must  be  withheld,  for  reasons  that  will  become 
obvious.  With  her  husband  she  had  recently 
moved  into  a  fine  old  mansion  surrounded  by  a 
[35] 


ADVENTURtNGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL     . 

splendid  park,  with  a  broad  stretch  of  lawn  be- 
tween the  trees  and  the  house.  The  place  had 
for  many  years  been  the  home  of  a  family  of 
ancient  lineage. 

One  night,  shortly  after  eleven  o'clock,  when 
Mrs.  M.,  as  I  shall  call  her,  had  gone  to  her  bed- 
room, she  thought  she  heard  a  moaning  sound, 
and  some  one  sobbing  as  though  in  great  dis- 
tress. Mr.  M.  was  away  from  home,  the  servants 
slept  in  another  part  of  the  house,  and  she  was 
quite  alone  except  for  a  friend  who  had  come  to 
keep  her  company  during  her  husband's  absence, 
and  to  whom  she  had  said  good  night  a  few  min- 
utes before.  But  being  a  courageous  woman,  she 
resolved  to  make  an  investigation  and  soon  lo- 
cated the  sound  as  coming  from  outdoors.  Tip- 
toeing over  to  a  window  on  the  staircase  landing, 
she  raised  the  blind  and  cautiously  peered  out. 

Below,  on  the  lawn,  in  the  pale  glow  of  the 
moon,  she  saw  an  amazing  scene.  A  middle-aged 
man,  stern  of  face  and  wearing  a  general's  uni- 
form, was  standing  menacingly  over  a  young  girl, 
who,  with  hands  clasped  in  anguish,  was  on  her 
knees  before  him.  At  the  sight  of  his  hard,  unre- 
[36] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

lenting  expression,  Mrs.  M.'s  one  thought  was 
not  of  fear  for  herself  but  pity  for  the  unfortunate 
girl. 

"  So  much  did  I  feel  for  her,"  she  said,  in  nar- 
rating the  affair,  "  that  without  a  moment's 
hesitation  I  ran  down  the  staircase  to  the  door 
opening  upon  the  lawn  to  beg  her  to  come  in  and 
tell  me  her  sorrow." 

When  she  reached  the  door,  the  figures  of  the 
soldier  and  the  girl  were  still  plainly  visible  on  the 
lawn,  and  in  precisely  the  same  attitude.  But 
at  the  sound  of  her  voice  they  disappeared. 

"  They  did  not  vanish  instantly,"  Mrs.  M.  ex- 
plained, "  but  more  like  a  dissolving  view  —  that 
is,  gradually.  And  I  did  not  leave  the  door  until 
they  had  gone." 

Months  afterwards,  when  calling  with  her 
husband  at  a  neighboring  house,  she  noticed  on 
the  wall  the  portrait  of  a  distinguished-looking 
man  in  a  military  uniform.  At  once  she  recog- 
nized it. 

"  That,"  she  told  her  husband,  in  an  undertone, 
"  is  a  picture  of  the  oflScer  I  saw  on  the  lawn," 

Aloud  she  asked:    "  Wliose  portrait  is  that?  " 
[37] 


92824 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

"  Why,"  replied  her  host,  "  it  is  a  portrait  of 
my  uncle,  General  Sir  X.  Y.  He  was  born  and 
died  in  the  house  you  now  occupy.  But  why  do 
you    ask?  " 

When  she  had  told  the  story,  her  host  com- 
mented : 

"  What  you  say  is  most  singular.  For  it  is  an 
unhappy  fact  that  Sir  X.  Y'.'s  youngest  daugh- 
ter, a  beautiful  girl,  brought  disgrace  upon  the 
family,  was  disowned  and  driven  from  home  by 
her  father,  and  died  broken-hearted."  ^ 

Not  all  ghosts,  it  is  pleasant  to  know,  bring 
notification  of  impending  or  already  consum- 
mated tragedy.  Many  seem  to  exist  solely  for 
the  purpose  of  giving  a  warning  of  trouble  which 
may  be  averted  by  taking  proper  precautions, 
and  sometimes  they  are  a  direct  means  of  prevent- 
ing disaster.  Thus,  a  guest  at  a  Back  Bay  hotel 
in  Boston  was  hurrying  along  a  dimly  lighted 
corridor  to  catch  an  elevator  she  thought  she 
saw  waiting  for  her,  when  unexpectedly  the  form 


^  Mrs.  M.'s  detailed  account  of  this  experience,  with  a  cor- 
roboratory statement  by  Mr.  M.,  is  pubUshed  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  \aii,  pp.  178-179. 

[381 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

of  a  man  appeared  at  the  entrance  to  the  elevator. 
She  was  almost  upon  him,  and  stopped  short  In 
order  to  avoid  a  colHsion.  At  once  he  disappeared, 
and  she  then  saw  that  although  the  door  in  the 
elevator  shaft  was  wide  open,  the  car  was  at  the 
bottom  of  the  shaft,  into  which  she  certainly 
would  have  fallen  had  not  the  phantasmal  figure 
checked  her  onward  rush. 

Or  take  this  instance,  reported  by  Lady  Eard- 
ley: 

"  One  day  I  went  to  my  bathroom,  locked  the 
door,  undressed,  and  was  just  about  to  get  into 
the  bath,  when  I  heard  a  voice  say : 

"'Unlock  the  door!' 

"  I  was  startled  and  looked  around,  but  of 
course  no  one  was  there.  I  had  stepped  into  the 
bath  when  I  heard  the  voice  twice  more,  saying: 

"'Unlock  the  door!' 

"  On  this  I  jumped  out  and  did  unlock  the  door, 
and  then  stepped  into  the  bath  again.  As  I  got 
in  I  fainted  away  and  fell  down  flat  in  the  water. 
Fortunately,  as  I  fell,  I  was  just  able  to  catch  at 
a  bell  handle,  which  was  attached  to  the  wall 
above  the  tub.  My  pull  brought  the  maid,  who 
[39] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

found  me,  she  said,  lying  with  my  head  under 

water.     She  picked  me  up  and  carried  me  out. 

If  the  door  had  been  locked  I  would  certainly 

have  been  drowned." 

Still  more  impressive  is  an  experience  in  the 

life  of  an  Englishwoman  named  Mrs.  Jean  Gwynne 

Bettany.     Her  statement  is  corroborated  by  her 

father  and  mother.^ 

"  On  one  occasion,"  she  says,  "  I  was  walking 
in  a  country  lane.  I  was  reading  geometry  as 
I  walked  along,  a  subject  little  likely  to  produce 
fancies  or  morbid  phenomena  of  any  kind,  when, 
in  a  moment,  I  saw  a  bedroom  in  my  house  known 
as  the  '  White  Room,'  and  upon  the  floor  lay  my 
mother,  to  all  appearance  dead.  The  vision  must 
have  remained  some  minutes,  during  which  time 
my  real  surroundings  appeared  to  pale  and  die 
out;  but  as  the  vision  faded,  actual  surroundings 
came  back,  at  first  dimly,  and  then  clearly. 

"  I  could  not  doubt  that  what  I  had  seen  was 
real,  so,  instead  of  going  home,  I  went  at  once  to 
the  house  of  our  medical  man,  and  he  immedi- 
ately set  out  with  me,  on  the  way  putting  ques- 
1  See  "  Phantasms  of  the  Living,"  vol.  i,  pp.  194-195. 

[40] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

tions  I  could  not  answer,  as  my  mother  was  to 
all  appearance  well  when  I  left  home. 

"  I  led  the  doctor  straight  to  the  '  White  Room,' 
where  we  found  my  mother  actually  lying  as  in 
my  vision.  This  was  true  even  to  minute  details. 
She  had  been  seized  suddenly  by  an  attack  at  the 
heart,  and  would  soon  have  breathed  her  last  but 
for  the  doctor's  timely  advent." 

Mrs.  Bettany's  father,  Mr.  S.  G.  Gwynne, 
adds: 

"  I  distinctly  remember  being  surprised  by 
seeing  my  daughter,  in  company  with  the  family 
doctor,  outside  the  door  of  my  residence;  and  I 
asked:  'Who  is  ill.?'  She  replied:  'Mamma.' 
She  led  the  way  at  once  to  the  *  White  Room,' 
where  we  found  my  wife  lying  in  a  swoon  on  the 
floor.  It  was  when  I  asked  when  she  had  been 
taken  ill  that  I  found  it  must  have  been  after 
my  daughter  had  left  the  house.  None  of  the 
servants  in  the  house  knew  anything  of  the  sud- 
den illness,  which  our  doctor  assured  me  would 
have  been  fatal  had  he  not  arrived  when  he  did." 

In  this  last  case,  it  should  be  noted  the  ghost 
seen  was  an  apparition  not  of  a  dead  person,  but 
[411 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

of  a  living  one.  This  is  most  important,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  gaining  insight  into  the  nature 
and  characteristics  of  ghosts. 

The  investigators  who,  a  matter  of  twenty-five 
or  thirty  years  ago,  began  for  the  first  time  to 
inquire  into  the  subject  in  a  scientific  way,  early 
made  the  interesting  discovery  that  phantasms 
of  the  living  are  seen  quite  as  frequently  as  phan- 
tasms of  the  dead.  Besides  which,  it  was  found 
that  ghosts  could  be  produced  experimentally  — 
that  by  a  mere  act  of  willing,  one  person  could 
make  another,  sometimes  miles  distant,  see  a 
ghost.  Many  successful  experiments  of  the  kind, 
supported  by  ample  corroborative  evidence,  are 
now  on  record.    For  example: 

Mr.  B.  F.  Sinclair,  at  the  time  a  resident  of 
Lake  wood,  New  Jersey,  had  occasion  to  go  to 
New  York  to  be  absent  several  days.  His  wife 
was  not  feeling  well  when  he  left  home,  and  he 
was  greatly  worried  about  her. 

"  That  night,"  to  continue  the  narrative^  in  his 

'  I  quote  from  Mr.  Sinclair's  report  to  the  Society  for  Psy- 
ical  Research,  and  published  by  him  in  its  Journal,  vol.  vii, 
p.  99. 

[42] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

own  words,  "  before  I  went  to  bed,  I  thought 
I  would  try  to  find  out,  if  possible,  her  condition. 
I  had  undressed,  and  was  sitting  on  the  edge  of 
the  bed,  when  I  covered  my  face  with  my  hands 
and  willed  myself  in  Lakewood  at  home,  to  see 
if  I  could  see  her.  After  a  little,  I  seemed  to  be 
standing  in  her  room  before  the  bed,  and  saw 
her  lying  there,  looking  much  better.  I  felt 
satisfied  she  was  better,  and  so  spent  the  week 
more  comfortably  regarding  her  condition. 

"  On  Saturday  I  went  home.  When  she  saw 
me,  she  remarked: 

"  '  I  thought  something  had  surely  happened 
to  you.  I  saw  you  standing  in  front  of  the  bed 
the  night  you  left,  as  plain  as  could  be,  and  I  have 
been  worrying  about  you  ever  since.' 

"  After  explaining  my  effort  to  find  out  her 
condition,  everything  became  clear  to  her.  She 
had  seen  me  when  I  was  trying  to  see  her.  I 
thought  at  the  time  I  was  going  to  see  her  and 
make  her  see  me." 

In  at  least  one  instance  another  experimenter, 
a  German  savant  named  Wesermann,  performed 
the  seemingly  impossible  feat  of  creating,  by  a 
[43] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

simple  act  of  volition,  a  ghost  not  of  himself  but 
of  a  person  who  was  dead. 

Herr  Wesermann  had  been  greatly  troubled  by 
the  conduct  of  a  friend,  a  young  officer  in  the 
German  army,  and  in  the  hope  of  reforming  him, 
"  willed  "  one  evening  that  at  eleven  o'clock  that 
night  he  should  see  in  a  dreatn  an  apparition  of  a 
lady  in  whom  he  had  once  been  greatly  interested, 
but  who  had  been  dead  five  years. 

It  chanced  that  at  eleven  o'clock,  instead  of 
being  in  bed  and  asleep,  Herr  Wesermann's  friend 
was  chatting  with  a  brother  officer.  Nevertheless, 
the  apparition  came  to  him  at  the  hour  appointed, 
and  was  seen,  not  only  by  him,  but  by  his  com- 
panion also. 

The  door  of  his  chamber  seemed  to  open,  and 
the  ghost  of  his  dead  sweetheart  walked  in, 
"  dressed  in  white,  with  black  kerchief  and  bared 
head."  Both  officers  started  to  their  feet,  and 
watched  with  bulging  eyes  while  the  ghost  bowed 
gravely  to  them,  turned,  and  without  a  word  dis- 
appeared. 

They  followed  instantly,  rushing  into  the  cor- 
ridor, but  saw  only  the  sentry,  who  solemnly 
[441 


GHOSTS  AND   THEIR  MEANING 

assured  them  that  nobody  but  themselves  had 
entered  or  left  the  room.^ 

Facts  like  these  naturally  raised  in  the  minds 
of  many  of  the  investigators  a  belief  that  quite 
possibly  ghosts  could  be  explained  without  re- 
sorting to  the  alternative  of  dogmatically  denying 
their  reality  or  regarding  them  as  supernatural 
beings.  This  belief  was  strengthened  by  other 
facts  brought  to  light  in  the  course  of  experiments 
to  determine  the  actuality  of  telepathy,  or  thought 
transference  as  it  used  to  be  called. 

It  was  discovered  that,  under  certain  favoring 
conditions,  thoughts  could  indeed  be  transmitted 
from  mind  to  mind  without  passing  through  the 
ordinary  known  channels  of  communication;  and 
furthermore  that  thoughts  thus  transmitted  were 
often  apprehended,  not  as  mere  ideas,  but  in  the 
form  of  auditory  or  visual  hallucinations. 

Thus,  if  it  were  a  question  of  "  telepathing  " 
the  idea  of  a  certain  playing  card,  say  the  three 
of   diamonds,    the    recipient,    instead    of    simply 


^  Herr  Wesermann's  experiments  were  reported  by  him 
in  the  Archiv  fur  den  Thierischen  Magnetismus,  vol.  vi,  pp.  136- 
139. 

[45] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

getting  the  thought,  "  three  of  diamonds,"  might 
hear  an  hallucinatory  voice  saying  to  him,  "  three 
of  diamonds,"  or  might  see  three  diamond-shaped 
objects  floating  before  his  eyes,  the  "  ghosts  "  of 
three  diamonds,  so  to  speak. 

Of  even  greater  significance  was  the  discovery 
that  it  frequently  happened  also  that  instead  of 
getting  the  message  which  the  experimenter  had 
consciously  attempted  to  send,  the  recipient 
would  get  other  ideas  merely  latent  in  the  experi- 
menter's mind  —  ideas  connected  with  his  environ- 
ment, something  he  had  been  doing,  etc.  Or  the 
recipient  might  get  the  right  message  several 
hours  after  the  experiment  had  been  made  — 
receiving  it,  for  example,  in  a  dream. 

The  obvious  conclusion  was  that  telepathy 
must  be  a  function  not  of  a  person's  ordinary 
consciousness,  but  of  what  psychologists  call  the 
subconsciousness,  thus  accounting  for  the  diflS- 
culty  of  invariably  obtaining  satisfactory  results 
in  telepathic  experiments. 

In  the  light  of  these  discoveries,  then,  the  be- 
lief has  been  gaining  ground  that  ghosts  —  real 
ghosts  —  are  at  most  nothing  but  mental  images 

[461 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

impressed  upon  one  mind  by  another  through  the 
subtle  power  of  telepathy,  and  apprehended  in 
the  form  of  hallucinations  of  the  various  senses, 
just  as  any  ordinary  telepathic  message  may  be 
apprehended. 

A  person  is  stricken  with  a  mortal  illness,  is 
fatally  injured,  or  is  passing  through  some  other 
great  crisis  likely  to  terminate  in  death.  Con- 
sciously or  subconsciously,  he  thinks  of  loved  ones 
far  away,  and  is  seized  with  a  longing  to  get  into 
touch  with  them  once  more,  if  only  to  notify 
them  of  the  catastrophe  threatening  him. 

Across  the  intervening  space,  by  what  mechan- 
ism we  as  yet  do  not  know,  his  thought  wings  its 
way  to  them,  finds  lodgment  in  their  subconscious- 
ness, and  thence,  when  favoring  conditions  arise 
—  as  in  some  moment  of  mental  relaxation  —  is 
projected  into  their  consciousness  before,  at  the 
time  of,  or  after  the  sender's  death,  and  is  seen, 
or  heard,  it  may  be,  as  a  Phantom  Drummer,  a 
Knocking  Ghost,  or  the  phantasmal  image  of  the 
sender  himself. 

If,  however,  conditions  are  such  as  to  prevent 
the  message  from  emerging  from  the  recipient's 
[47] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

subconsciousness  into  his  field  of  conscious  vision, 
it  may,  on  occasion,  as  telepathic  experiments 
have  proved,  be  retransmitted  to  a  third  party, 
and  by  him  be  apprehended;  as,  for  example,  the 
Drummer  of  Cortachy,  in  the  two  instances  cited 
above,  was  heard  not  by  members  of  the  Ogilvy 
family,  but  by  comparative  strangers. 

More  than  this,  evidence  has  been  accumulating 
to  make  it  certain  that  in  most  cases  not  even 
telepathy  is  involved  in  the  creation  of  ghosts, 
but  that  they  are  merely  products  of  the  seer's 
own  subconsciousness.  This  was  first  clearly  in- 
dicated by  the  results  of  an  interesting  "  census 
of  hallucinations,"  originated  some  years  ago  at 
the  International  Congress  of  Psychology,  and 
simultaneously  carried  on  —  principally  by  mem- 
bers of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  —  in 
the  United  States,  England,  France,  Germany, 
and  other  countries.  To  thousands  of  persons 
the  question  was  put: 

"  Have  you  ever,  when  believing  yourself  to 
be  completely  awake,  had  a  vivid  impression  of 
seeing  or  being  touched  by  a  living  being  or  in- 
animate object,  or  of  hearing  a  voice,  which  im- 

[48] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

pression,  so  far  as  you  could  discover,  was  not 
due  to  any  external  physical  cause?  " 

Of  the  27,339  replies  received  to  this  question  * 
no  fewer  than  3,266  were  in  the  affirmative.  Many 
of  those  replying  narrated  true  "  ghost  stories  " 
similar  to  the  ones  given  above;  many  testified 
to  apparitions  not  of  dead  persons  but  of  living 
friends;  and  in  addition  to  this,  the  replies  of 
many  others  brought  out  the  interesting  fact 
that  there  often  were  "  ghosts "  of  inanimate 
objects  —  of  hats  and  chairs  and  tables  as  well 
as  of  human  beings. 

One  respondent,  Mrs.  Savile  Lumley,  testified 
that,  in  broad  daylight  and  while  taking  a  calis- 
thenic  lesson,  she  and  another  young  woman 
"  distinctly  saw  a  chair  over  which  we  felt  we 
must  fall,  and  called  out  to  each  other  to  avoid  it. 
But  no  chair  was  there." 

The  Reverend  G.  Lyon  Turner,  professor  of 
philosophy  at  the  Lancashire  Independent  College, 
Manchester,  England,  woke  up  one  morning  to 


1  The  detailed  report  of  the  results  of  this  census  will  be 
found  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
vol.  X,  pp.  25-422. 

[49] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

find  the  ceiling  of  his  room  adorned  with  a  huge 
chandeher  of  some  ten  arms,  and  the  jets  shining 
brightly  through  the  gi'ound-glass  globes  at  the 
end  of  each  arm.  He  knew  that  when  he  went  to 
bed  no  chandelier  had  been  there,  and  naturally 
feared  that  something  was  the  matter  with  his 
eyesight. 

"  I  moved  my  head,"  he  said,  "  to  see  whether 
the  phantom  moved,  too.  But  no,  it  remained 
fixed;  and  the  objects  behind  and  beyond  it 
became  more  or  less  completely  visible  as  I 
moved,  exactly  as  would  have  been  the  case  had 
it  been  a  real  chandelier.  So  I  woke  my  wife, 
but  she  saw  nothing." 

Even  more  bizarre  was  the  phantasm  that 
appeared  to  another  Englishman.  Here  is  his 
own  account  of  it: 

"  I  had  just  gone  to  bed,  and  was  —  at  least, 
this  was  my  impression  at  the  time  —  quite 
awake.  The  door  of  my  room  was  ajar,  and  there 
was  a  fight  in  the  passage  which  half-illumined 
my  room.  Suddenly  I  became  aware  of  a  series 
of  slight  taps  on  the  passage  outside.  These  taps 
were  not  sufficiently  loud  for  a  human  footstep; 

[50] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

on  the  other  hand,  the  volume  of  their  sound  was 
greater  than  that  made  by  a  waLking-stick.  I 
fully  remember  sitting  up  in  bed  and  beholding 
two  top-boots  trot  rapidly  across  the  room  and 
vanish  into  the  opposite  wall.  The  illusion  was 
astonishingly  vivid,  and  I  can  recall  the  details 
to  this  day.  I  have  never  had  a  waking  dream 
since,  and  have  never  experienced  ambulant  top- 
boots  except  on  this  occasion." 

Whence  the  origin  of  these  odd  apparitions? 
The  reply  of  modern  science  is  that  they  were 
nothing  more  than  the  weird  externalization  of 
ideas  latent  in  the  minds  of  those  perceiving  them. 
Indeed,  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Turner  there  is  absolute 
proof  that  this  was  the  case,  for  that  gentleman 
afterwards  identified  the  phantom  chandelier 
with  one  familiar  to  him  as  hanging  from  the 
ceiling  of  the  college  chapel  in  which  he  daily  said 
prayers.  Furthermore,  there  is  proof  —  of  which 
an  abundance  will  be  given  in  subsequent  chapters 
—  that  often  the  ideas  thus  externalized  relate 
to  things  once  seen  or  heard  but  long  since  for- 
gotten; it  may  be  to  things  seen  or  heard  in  a 
wholly  unconscious,  or,  rather,  subconscious, 
[51] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

way.  And  as  with  ideas  of  things,  so  with  ideas 
of  persons. 

In  this  connection,  as  illuminating  vividly  the 
problem  of  ghosts,  may  well  be  given  an  experi- 
ence narrated  to  me  by  Doctor  Morton  Prince, 
the  eminent  Boston  psychopathologist,  or  medical 
psychologist. 

A  patient  of  his  came  to  him  one  morning  in  a 
condition  of  extreme  nervousness,  declaring  that 
the  previous  night  she  had  seen  a  ghost.  "  I  woke 
up,"  said  she,  "  and  saw  at  the  foot  of  my  bed 
a  young  woman,  who  gradually  faded  away." 
She  maintained  that  at  no  time  had  she  seen  any- 
body resembling  the  apparition,  but  in  the  minute 
description  she  gave.  Doctor  Prince  at  once  rec- 
ognized a  relative  of  his,  with  whom  he  remem- 
bered he  had  been  talking  in  the  hall  when  the 
patient  last  visited  him.  Saying  nothing  to  her  he 
quietly  assembled  a  few  photographs,  and,  before 
she  departed,  asked  her  to  look  them  over. 

"  Why,"  she  said,  picking  one  up,  "  here  is  my 
ghost!  " 

"  Yes,"  was  Doctor  Prince's  reply,  "  and  you 
saw  your  ghost  in  this  house  when  you  were  here 

[52] 


GHOSTS  AND  THEIR  MEANING 

only  a  few  days  ago.  I  was  talking  to  her  as  you 
came  in." 

"  But,"  objected  the  patient,  "  I  certainly  did 
not  see  her,  for  I  noticed  somebody  was  with  you, 
and  I  purposely  turned  away  as  I  passed,  lest  I 
should  seem  rude." 

"  All  the  same,"  said  Doctor  Prince,  "  you  saw 
her  without  being  conscious  of  it  —  saw  her,  as  it 
were,  out  of  the  corner  of  your  eye.  One  fleeting 
glance  would  be  enough  to  give  you  the  memory 
image  that  you  mistook  for  a  ghost." 

Undoubtedly  Doctor  Prince  was  right,  and 
undoubtedly  this  dual  law  of  subconscious  per- 
ception and  memory  is  enough  to  account  for 
some  of  the  most  impressive  ghosts  cited  in  this 
chapter.  Even  the  strange  haunting  of  the  Petit 
Trianon,  as  experienced  by  Miss  Morison  and  Miss 
Lamont,  may  be  said  to  find  its  explanation  here. 

It  is  true  that  both  Miss  Morison  and  Miss 
Lamont  profess  to  have  known  little  about  the 
history  of  the  Petit  Trianon  previous  to  their 
visit  to  Versailles.  But  their  detailed  report  of 
the  haunting  contains  statements  showing  that, 
subconsciously  at  any  rate,  they  must  have  pos- 
[53] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

sessed  considerable  knowledge  of  the  place.  Miss 
Morison  admits  that  she  had,  as  a  girl,  great  en- 
thusiasm for  Marie  Antoinette,  and  had  read  not 
a  little  about  her,  including  an  article  descriptive 
of  her  summer  home;  while  Miss  Lamont  is  a 
teacher  of  French  history,  and  accordingly  must 
have  had  rather  more  knowledge  than  the  aver- 
age person  regarding  the  life  story  of  Queen  Marie. 
Besides  which,  and  most  significant,  there  was 
published,  just  before  they  went  to  Versailles, 
an  illustrated  magazine  article  picturing  a  his- 
torical fete  in  the  gardens  of  the  Petit  Trianon, 
with  some  account  of  its  history. 

It  is  worth  noting,  too,  that  the  two  ladies  were 
not  haunted  in  exactly  the  same  way,  each  of 
them  seeing  certain  people  and  scenes  that  were 
not  visible  to  the  other.  On  the  theory  of  a  super- 
natural manifestation  this  would  be  hard  to 
explain,  but  the  difficulty  vanishes  if  we  recognize 
that  the  subconscious  knowledge  of  the  Trianon 
possessed  by  each  must  necessarily  have  differed. 

The  problem  remains  to  account  for  the  fact, 
as  distinct  from  the  facts,  of  the  haunting.  Why 
should  Miss  Morison  and  Miss  Lamont,  among 

[541 


GHOSTS  AND   THEIR  MEANING 

all  the  thousands  of  visitors  to  the  Petit  Trianon, 
alone  have  had  such  an  experience?  To  this, 
assuredly,  there  is  no  answer  if  one  is  going  to 
stick  to  the  old-fashioned  notion  of  ghosts  and 
attribute  to  them  objective  reality.  But  the 
answer  is  very  simple  on  the  modern  scientific 
hypothesis. 

Miss  Morison  and  Miss  Lamont,  the  psycholo- 
gist would  say,  were  haunted  for  the  reason  that, 
being  of  exceptionally  romantic,  impressionable 
temperaments,  the  ideas  associated  in  their  minds 
with  the  Petit  Trianon,  appealed  to  them  with 
such  "  suggestive  "  force  as  to  plunge  them  for 
the  time  being  into  a  state  of  "  psychical  disso- 
ciation," during  which  their  subconsciousness  ob- 
tained complete  control  over  the  upper  concious- 
ness,  and  flooded  them  with  its  latent  memories 
of  aU  that  they  had  ever  read  or  heard  about  the 
place  and  its  historic  residents.  In  other  words, 
they  were  as  two  persons  "  dreaming  awake." 

The  same  explanation  would  obviously  apply 

to  the  ghostly  vision  seen  on  the  lawn  by  Mrs.  M. 

Nor  do  we  need  to  go  beyond  the  hypothesis  of 

subconscious  perception  to  account  for  the  expe- 

[55] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN   THE  PSYCHICAL 

riences  of  Lady  Eardley  and  the  guest  at  the 
Boston  hotel.  In  the  latter  ease  it  is  necessary  to 
assume  nothing  more  than  that  the  lady  who  saw 
the  apparition  at  the  elevator  entrance  perceived 
her  danger  without  being  aware  of  it,  and  sub- 
consciously developed  the  hallucination  that  en- 
abled her  to  avoid  it. 

As  to  the  Eardley  case,  it  is  a  well-established 
medical  fact  that  some  diseases,  in  their  initial 
stages,  cause  organic  changes  too  slight  to  be 
noticed  by  the  sufferer's  upper  consciousness,  but 
plainly  perceptible  to  his  subconsciousness  which, 
through  symbolical  dreams  or  hallucinations, 
sometimes  seeks  to  convey  to  the  upper  conscious- 
ness a  warning  that  all  is  not  well. 

I  myself  have  had  such  an  experience.  A  num- 
ber of  years  ago,  beginning  in  the  summer,  I  was 
troubled  by  a  recurrent  nightmare  in  which,  al- 
though the  details  were  not  always  the  same, 
the  central  incident  never  varied.  Always  the 
nightmare  ended  with  a  phantom  cat  clawing 
viciously  at  my  throat.  I  did  not  then  know  as 
much  about  dreams  as  I  do  now,  so,  beyond 
thinking  vaguely  that  "  it  must  mean  some- 
[56] 


GHOSTS   AND   THEIR   MEANING 

thing,"  I  paid  no  attention  to  this  repeated  night- 
mare. 

At  the  end  of  six  months  I  had  an  attack  of 
grippe,  necessitating  treatment  by  a  throat  special- 
ist, who  speedily  discovered  in  my  throat  a  growth 
of  which  I  consciously  had  had  no  knowledge. 
With  its  removal  the  recurrent  dream  of  the  cat 
instantly  ceased  to  trouble  me. 

Lady  Eardley's  case  was,  doubtless,  quite  simi- 
lar, the  only  difference  being  that  the  subconscious 
warning  was  conveyed  to  her  upper  consciousness, 
not  in  dream,  but  as  an  auditory  hallucination. 
And,  in  the  somewhat  parallel  case  of  the  ghost 
seen  by  Doctor  Langtry,  it  seems  a  safe  assump- 
tion that  if  the  frightened  clergyman  had  advised 
the  child's  father  to  place  her  under  medical  care 
at  once,  the  subsequent  fatality  might  have  been 
averted. 

In  the  Langtry  case,  however,  there  must  have 
been  operative  also  a  telepathic  factor.  And  since 
the  telepathic  explanation  of  ghosts  is  still  the 
subject  of  much  controversy,  it  will  be  well,  before 
proceeding  farther,  to  state  exactly  what  is 
known  to-day  regarding  telepathy. 

[57] 


CHAPTER  II 

WHY    I    BELIEVE   IN   TELEPATHY 

SOME  years  ago,  when  living  near  New  York, 
I  had  a  curious  dream  that  made  a  deep  im- 
pression on  me.  In  this  dream  I  seemed  to  be 
at  a  club  or  hotel,  when  a  messenger  boy  entered 
and  announced  that  I  was  wanted  up-stairs. 
There  I  found  in  a  large  room  a  family  with  whom 
I  had  been  intimate  in  my  boyhood  in  Canada. 
I  had  heard  nothing  of  them  for  years,  and  natu- 
rally was  delighted  to  see  them.  But  I  was  struck 
with  the  absence  of  one  of  the  sons,  Archie,  who, 
as  a  youngster  of  about  my  own  age,  had  been 
one  of  my  closest  friends. 

To  my  inquiry  as  to  why  he  was  not  with 
them,  I  was  told:  "He's  gone,"  a  statement 
which,  despite  its  vagueness,  seemed  in  the  dream 
a  wholly  adequate  and  satisfactory  reply.  When 
I  awoke,  however,  with  the  dream  details  vividly 
in  mind,  I  had  a  strong  feeling  that,  as  I  said  to 
[58] 


WHY  I  BELIEVE  IN  TELEPATHY 

my  wife:  "  Something  serious  must  have  hap- 
pened to  Archie  Tisdale."  The  sequel  proved 
that  this  feehng  was  amply  justified. 

For  it  developed  that,  at  about  the  time  of  my 
dream,  he  had  died  from  an  illness  of  which  I 
knew  nothing  until,  prompted  by  the  dream,  I 
made  inquiries  about  him. 

Again,  many  years  earlier,  whiling  away  the 
time  one  summer  evening  in  a  green  lane  that  led 
to  the  shore  of  a  beautiful  Canadian  lake,  I  had 
an  experience  which  similarly  gave  me  food  for 
thought.  I  had  been  leaning  on  a  rail  fence, 
taking  in  the  glories  of  the  fading  sunset.  It 
was  one  of  those  evenings  and  one  of  those  scenes 
of  which  poets  delight  to  sing,  and  as  I  gazed 
across  the  lake  at  the  changing  hues  on  the  dis- 
tant hills,  slowly  turning  from  blue  to  gray  as 
the  twilight  deepened,  I  gave  myseK  up  to  the 
pleasurable  day-dreaming  so  common  in  the  ro- 
mantic age  of  youth. 

Suddenly  I  was  roused  by  hearing  my  name 

called,  in  a  tone  so  faint,  albeit  perfectly  audible, 

that  for  a  moment  I  could  fancy  the  call  came 

from  beyond  the  lake.     The  next  instant,  how- 

[591 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

ever,  I  realized  that  it  was  what,  with  my  larger 
psychological  knowledge  of  to-day,  I  should  term 
wholly  subjective,  coming  from  within  me  rather 
than  from  without;  and  at  the  same  time  I  dis- 
tinctly got  the  impression  that  it  was  connected 
in  some  way  with  accident  or  illness  befalling  a 
young  lady  in  whom  I  was  then  much  interested 
—  the  young  lady,  in  fact,  who  afterwards  became 
my  wife. 

It  was  in  vain  that  I  sought  to  dismiss  this 
impression  as  a  mere  freak  of  the  imagination. 
So  insistent  did  it  at  last  become  that  I  returned 
to  the  house  and  hastily  scribbled  a  note,  stating 
what  I  had  heard  —  or,  rather,  thought  I  had 
heard  —  and  expressing  the  hope  that  all  was 
well. 

My  letter  had  to  go  to  a  distant  city,  and  it 
was  therefore  several  days  before  an  answer 
could  arrive.  I  well  remember  how,  in  the  in- 
terval, I  fretted  and  worried,  But  by  return 
mail  a  reassuring  reply  reached  me.  Only,  most 
strangely,  the  writer  added  that  late  in  the  after- 
noon of  the  day  on  which  I  heard  the  hallucina- 
tory call,  she  had  been  overcome  by  heat,  and 
[60] 


WHY  I  BELIEVE   IN  TELEPATHY 

was  for  some  hours  thought  to  be  in  a  serious 
condition. 

Once  again  I  heard  the  same  weird  inward  call- 
ing of  my  name  —  this  time  at  eleven  o'clock  on 
the  night  of  a  Fourth  of  July  celebration,  when  I 
was  lounging  in  a  hammock  on  the  bank  of  the 
Niagara  River,  watching  the  last  of  the  fireworks 
on  the  American  side.  I  was  quite  alone,  as  the 
friends  with  whom  I  was  staying  had  retired  an 
hour  or  more  before;  and,  for  that  matter,  it 
was  not  their  custom  to  address  me  by  my  first 
name.  Yet  I  heard  myself  called,  faintly  but 
distinctly,  and  seemingly  from  across  the  water, 
precisely  as  in  my  previous  experience. 

As  in  that  experience,  also,  I  instinctively  as- 
sociated the  calling  with  my  absent  sweetheart, 
and  wrote  to  her  at  once.  Two  days  later,  our 
letters  crossing,  I  received  word  that  on  the 
night  of  the  Fourth  she  had  taken  an  overdose  of 
headache  powder,  with  consequences  that  might 
have  been  serious  had  not  medical  assistance 
been  promptly  obtained. 

But  even  more  singular  than  any  of  the  fore- 
going is  a  happening  connected  with  an  accident 

[611 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

that  occurred  to  my  wife  while  she  was  still  a 
mere  schoolgirl. 

With  a  party  of  young  people  she  had  gone  on 
an  outing  to  a  Maine  lake  resort,  and  in  the  dusk 
of  a  pleasant  evening  started  for  a  drive  in  an  old- 
fashioned  hay-wagon.  There  was  no  thought  of 
danger,  and  the  drive  was  thoroughly  enjoyed 
by  all  until,  coming  down  a  long  and  rather 
steep  hill,  the  breeching  broke,  and  the  horses 
ran  away.  At  a  sharp  turn  in  the  road,  half-way 
down  the  hill,  the  drive  came  to  a  sudden  and 
disastrous  end  with  the  overturning  of  the  wagon. 

A  number  of  its  occupants  were  seriously  hurt, 
my  wife,  with  great  presence  of  mind,  saving  her- 
self by  jumping  clear  of  the  wagon  just  as  it  be- 
gan to  go  over.  Even  so,  she  did  not  escape 
uninjured,  her  face  being  badly  cut. 

Now  comes  the  curious  part  of  the  affair.  Early 
the  next  morning  a  telegram  from  her  mother  in 
Boston  was  handed  to  her.  It  read:  "Are  you 
hurt  or  ill.''  Wire  at  once.  Am  writing."  The 
letter  which  followed  gave  the  amazing  informa- 
tion that  the  previous  night  —  that  is,  the  night 
of  the  accident  —  the  mother  had  had  an  unusu- 

[62] 


WHY   I   BELIEVE   IN   TELEPATHY 

ally  vivid  dream  in  which  she  saw  her  daughter 
driving  in  a  carriage,  thrown  out  of  the  carriage, 
and  badly  cut  about  the  face.  So  realistic  was 
the  dream  that  on  waking  it  frightened  her,  and 
led  to  the  sending  of  the  telegram. 

Obviously  the  question  arises:  Were  these 
four  strange  experiences  representative  merely 
of  extraordinary  chance  coincidences,  or  were 
they  indicative  of  the  action  of  some  direct  means 
of  communication  from  mind  to  mind  by  other 
than  the  ordinary  recognized  channels  of  com- 
munication .f* 

Personally  I  am  satisfied  that  chance  alone  will 
not  suflBce  to  account  for  them,  and  that  they  are 
veritable  instances  of  the  workings  of  a  faculty 
latent  in  all  mankind  and  operable  in  accordance 
with  a  true,  if  as  yet  little  understood,  law  of 
nature  —  call  it  telepathy,  thought  transference, 
or  what  you  will. 

And  in  saying  this,  I  am  well  aware  that,  even 
if  my  belief  is  in  agreement  with  that  enter- 
tained by  many  eminent  men  of  science  —  such 
as  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  Sir  William  Crookes,  Camille 
Flammarion,  Charles  Richet,  Theodore  Flournoy, 
[63] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Henri  Morselli,  Professor  W.  F.  Barrett  and  the 
late  William  James  —  it  is  contrary  to  the  opinion 
held  by  the  great  majority  of  scientists  at  the 
present  day.  Their  view,  to  put  it  briefly,  is  that 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  telepathy;  that  chance 
coincidence,  deliberate  or  unconscious  falsifica- 
tion, and  errors  of  memory  are  sufficient  to  ex- 
plain most  instances  of  alleged  telepathic  com- 
munication; and  that  the  remainder  are  reducible 
to  the  operation  of  more  or  less  familiar  principles 
in  the  psychology  of  the  subconscious  —  notably 
the  law  of  hypersesthesia,  or  unusual  extension 
of  the  senses  of  sight,  hearing,  smell,  etc. 

I  am  perfectly  willing  to  admit  that  much 
which  passes  as  telepathy  may  be  thus  reducible. 
For  example,  I  am  seated  writing  at  the  desk  in 
my  study.  Unexpectedly  there  flashes  into  my 
mind  an  idea  concerning  a  person  of  whom  I 
have  not  thought  for  weeks  or  months.  The  next 
instant  the  doorbell  rings,  and  presently  the  maid 
informs  me  that  the  very  person  of  whom  I  have 
that  moment  been  thinking  has  entered  the 
house. 

This  is  a  not  infrequent  experience,  as  most 
[64] 


WHY  I  BELIEVE  IN  TELEPATHY 

of  my  readers  will  concede.  So  frequent  is  it 
that  it  is  absurd  to  attempt  to  account  for  it 
on  the  hypothesis  of  chance  coincidence.  But 
neither  would  it  be  always  safe  to  raise  the  theory 
of  telepathy.  For  it  might  well  happen  that 
while  I  was  seated  intent  on  my  work,  with  the 
study  windows  closed,  my  ear  nevertheless  caught 
the  sound  of  footsteps  coming  down  the  street, 
or  on  my  porch;  that  I  subconsciously  recog- 
nized in  them  my  friend's  walk,  and  that  I  con- 
sequently, though  without  knowing  why,  thought 
of  him  at  that  precise  moment.  This  is  assuredly 
a  possible  explanation  —  though  I  am  far  from 
conceding  that  in  all  such  cases  it  is  the  only 
explanation  properly  applicable. 

So,  likewise,  one  must  be  constantly  on  guard 
against  over-readily  accepting  as  evidences  of 
telepathic  action  the  feats  of  "  mind  reading  " 
often  undertaken  by  way  of  parlor  amusement. 
Stage  "  mind  reading "  by  professional  enter- 
tainers may  be  safely  left  out  of  the  reckoning, 
as  undoubtedly  based  on  methods  of  conscious 
trickery  and  deceit.  But  in  a  private  gathering, 
where  there  can  be  no  question  of  confederates 
[65] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

and  deliberate  signaling,  surprising  results  are 
sometimes  obtained  in  the  finding  of  hidden 
objects,  etc.  On  the  surface  this  would  seem 
explicable  only  on  a  telepathic  basis,  yet  in 
reality  it  is  commonly  brought  about  by  "  muscle 
reading  "  rather  than  by  true  "  mind  reading." 

Experiment  has  shown  that  the  effort  to  con- 
centrate thought  on  a  given  matter  —  a  name 
or  an  object  —  tends  to  produce  some  form  of 
muscular  activity,  either  subconscious  whispering 
of  the  name  thought  of,  or  subconscious  move- 
ment in  the  direction  of  the  object.  If,  as  is  the 
rule,  the  spectators  are  supposed  to  keep  their 
minds  fixed  intently  on  the  name  or  object  they 
have  selected  for  the  "  test,"  some  of  them  are 
apt  to  give  these  involuntary  muscular  hints, 
which  the  performer  will  accept  and  act  upon, 
it  may  be  without  being  clearly  conscious  of  the 
source  of  his  information. 

Still  it  must  be  added  that  experiments  in  the 
"  willing  game "  have  been  carried  out  under 
conditions  and  with  results  indicating  that  occa- 
sionally, at  all  events,  successes  are  achieved 
without  any   such  subconscious  guidance.     Not 

[66] 


WHY  I   BELIEVE  IN  TELEPATHY 

so  very  long  ago  some  interesting  and  most 
striking  experiments  of  this  sort  were  described 
to  me  by  Professor  J.  H.  Hyslop. 

"  The  subject  of  my  experiments,"  said  he, 
"  was  a  young  woman  of  good  family,  who  was 
credited  with  having  exceptional  ability  in  divi- 
ning the  thoughts  and  wishes  of  others.  It  was 
arranged  that  I  should  investigate  her  powers, 
and  accordingly  for  a  period  of  some  weeks  I  had 
frequent  sittings  with  her,  in  the  presence  of  a 
few  interested  and  trustworthy  friends. 

"  The  plan  followed  in  every  experiment  was 
this:  The  young  woman  having  left  the  room, 
I  mentally  selected  some  more  or  less  complicated 
action  for  her  to  perform  upon  her  return.  I  then 
wrote  down  on  a  slip  of  paper  what  I  wished  her 
to  do,  showed  it  to  the  others,  and  concealed  it 
in  a  book,  which  did  not  leave  my  hand  until 
after  the  completion  of  the  experiment.  From 
first  to  last  not  a  word  was  spoken  by  any  one, 
so  as  to  guard  against  any  possible  hyperaesthesia 
of  hearing  on  her  part. 

"  The  young  woman  was  then  called  back,  and 
almost  invariably  proceeded  to  execute  the  com- 
[67] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

mands  mentally  given  her.  She  did  this  so 
promptly  that  I  cannot  conceive  how  she  could 
possibly  have  got  any  unconscious  hints  from 
those  present,  and  conscious  signaling  was  out 
of  the  question. 

"  For  instance,  I  once  wrote  on  my  paper  an 
order  for  her  to  pick  out  of  a  vase  a  bunch  of 
keys  I  had  hidden  there,  cross  the  room  with  the 
keys,  and  place  them  on  the  mantel-piece.  She 
entered,  stood  for  but  a  moment  with  her  eyes 
closed,  and  then,  swiftly  passing  to  the  vase, 
which  was  on  the  floor,  picked  up  the  keys, 
turned,  and  deposited  them  on  the  mantel-piece 
as  I  had  mentally  suggested.  It  was  all  done  so 
quickly  and  spontaneously  that  to  my  mind  it 
afforded  strong  evidential  proof  of  true  thought 
transference. 

"  She  was  not  always  successful,  but  some  of 
her  failures  were  quite  as  instructive  as  her  suc- 
cesses. On  three  occasions  she  executed,  not 
the  commands  I  had  written  on  the  paper,  but 
commands  I  had  thought  of  writing  but  for  one 
reason  or  another  had  abandoned.  No  one  in 
the  room  excepting  myself  knew  of  these  previous 

[681 


WHY   I   BELIEVE   IN   TELEPATHY 

intentions,  so  she  could  have  derived  her  knowl- 
edge of  them  from  the  involuntary  movements  of 
no  one  excepting  me;  and  if  it  had  actually  been 
a  matter  of  subconscious  guidance,  it  is  obvious 
that  my  muscular  indications  would  have  related 
not  to  the  abandoned  commands  but  to  the  com- 
mands I  actually  wished  her  to  carry  out. 

"  All  things  considered,  my  experiments  with 
this  young  woman  satisfy  me  that  the  hypothesis 
of  subconscious  guidance  is  not  always  properly 
applicable,  even  when  the  '  mind  reader  '  is  in  a 
position  to  see  or  hear  the  persons  testing  him." 

Assuming,  however,  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
that  Professor  Hyslop's  conclusion  is  erroneous, 
and  that  the  involuntary  movement  theory  does 
always  suffice  as  an  explanatory  hypothesis  when 
experimenter  and  subject  are  in  the  same  rooms, 
it  becomes  manifestly  and  hopelessly  inadequate 
when  applied  to  explain  the  transmission  of  ideas 
between  persons  a  considerable  distance  apart. 
Yet  what  I  consider  abundant  proof  has  been 
experimentally  obtained  that  such  transmission 
may,  and  sometimes  does,  take  place  —  occasion- 
ally in  most  dramatic  form. 

[69] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Take,  for  example,  the  experience  of  a  French 
lady,  Mme.  Clarence  de  Vaux-Royer,  who,  feel- 
ing uneasy  one  day  about  a  friend  who  was  then 
living  in  the  United  States,  thought  she  would 
cable  to  him.  Unfortunately  it  was  Sunday,  and 
her  maid  found  the  cable  office  closed.  Mme.  de 
Vaux-Royer  then  decided  to  attempt  a  tele- 
pathic experiment,  and,  knowing  that  her  friend 
was  mourning  the  death  of  his  mother  and  of  a 
favorite  sister,  decided  to  try  and  impress  him 
with  an  idea  that  they  were  near  him  and  would 
comfort  him  in  any  trial  he  might  be  under- 
going. She  told  her  maid  of  her  intention,  and 
asked  the  maid  to  note  the  date,  so  as  to  be 
able  to  give  corroborative  evidence  if  the  experi- 
ment succeeded. 

This  was  on  November  7.  Ten  days  later  the 
American  mail  brought  to  Mme.  de  Vaux-Royer 
a  letter  from  her  absent  friend,  who,  after  re- 
ferring to  some  matters  of  wholly  private  inter- 
est, stated: 

"  Last  night  (the  7th),  while  I  was  praying,  I 
saw,  hovering  above  my  head,  some  gold  circles, 
which  gradually  floated  away  until  I  could  no 

[701 


WHY   I   BELIEVE   IN   TELEPATHY 

longer  see  them.  At  the  same  time  I  seemed  to 
hear  some  one  calHng  to  me :  '  Mother !  Mother ! 
Sister  Minnie!  '  Then  the  circles  floated  back, 
approaching  until  they  almost  touched  my  head. 
Oh,  how  much  comfort  I  felt!  How  they  inspired 
me  with  sentiments  of  goodness  and  happiness!  " 

From  this  it  is  manifestly  only  a  step  to  the 
experimental  production  of  telepathic  phantasms 
of  the  human  form,  as  in  the  two  instances  given 
in  the  previous  chapter  (the  Wesermann  and 
Sinclair  experiments),  and  in  numerous  other 
instances,  of  which  one  or  two  additional  may 
well  be  narrated  here.  In  one,  a  Harvard  pro- 
fessor, an  acquaintance  of  Professor  James,  on 
whose  authority  I  quote  the  story,  having  heard 
of  the  possibility  of  telepathic  hallucinations, 
determined  one  evening  that  he  would  try  to 
make  an  apparition  of  himself  appear  to  a  friend, 
a  young  lady  who  lived  half  a  mile  from  his 
home.  He  did  not  mention  his  intention  to  her 
or  to  anybody  else.  The  next  day  he  received  a 
letter,  in  which  she  said: 

"  Last  night  about  ten  o'clock  I  was  in  the 
dining-room  at  supper  with  B.  Suddenly  I 
[711 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

thought  I  saw  you  looking  in  through  the  crack 
of  the  door  at  the  end  of  the  room,  toward  which 
I  was  looking.  I  said  to  B.:  'There  is  Blank, 
looking  through  the  crack  of  the  door!  '  B.,  whose 
back  was  toward  the  door,  said:  *  He  can't  be 
there.  He  would  come  right  in.'  However,  I 
got  up  and  looked  in  the  other  room,  but  there 
was  nobody  there.  Now,  what  were  you  doing 
last  night,  at  that  time?  " 

At  that  precise  moment,  as  he  told  Professor 
James,  "  Blank  "  had  been  at  home,  sitting  alone 
in  his  room,  and  trying  "  whether  I  could  project 
my  astral  body  to  the  presence  of  A." 

Possibly  had  the  young  lady  been  alone,  and 
not  actively  engaged,  she  might  have  had  a 
more  definite  view  of  the  phantasm  of  her  absent 
friend, .  for  experience  has  shown  that  solitude 
and  quiet  are  favoring  conditions  for  the  percep- 
tion of  telepathic  apparitions.  In  nearly  every 
instance  reported  to  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research  the  percipient  of  the  phantasm  is  alone 
and  in  a  more  or  less  passive,  quiescent  frame 
of  mind.  Such  a  condition  usually  obtains 
immediately  before  or  immediately   after   sleep, 

[721 


WHY   I   BELIEVE  IN   TELEPATHY 

and  it  is  then  that  experimental  apparitions  are 
seen  most  plainly.  Though  occasionally  they 
are  vividly  experienced  when  the  percipient  is 
in  a  state  of  the  most  active  consciousness,  as 
in  the  following  case,  reported  by  the  agent  — 
that  is,  the  person  sending  the  telepathic  mes- 
sage —  and  confirmed  by  the  percipient,  an 
English  clergyman  now  dead,  the  Reverend  W. 
Stainton  Moses. 

"  One  evening,"  runs  the  agent's  account,  "  I 
resolved  to  try  to  appear  to  Z.,  at  some  miles 
distance.  I  did  not  inform  him  beforehand  of 
the  intended  experiment;  but  retired  to  rest 
shortly  before  midnight  with  thoughts  intently 
fixed  on  Z.,  with  whose  rooms  and  surroundings, 
however,  I  was  quite  unacquainted.  I  soon  fell 
asleep,  and  awoke  next  morning  unconscious  of 
anything  having  taken  place.  On  seeing  Z.  a 
few  days  afterward,  I  inquired: 

"  '  Did  anything  happen  at  your  rooms  on 
Saturday  night  .^^  ' 

"  '  Yes,'  replied  he,  '  a  great  deal  happened. 
I  had  been  sitting  over  the  fire  with  M.,  smoking 
and   chatting.     About   twelve-thirty   he   rose  to 

[73] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

leave,  and  I  let  him  out  myseK.  I  returned  to 
the  fire  to  finish  my  pipe,  when  I  saw  you  sitting 
in  the  chair  just  vacated  by  him. 

"  '  I  looked  intently  at  you,  and  then  took  up 
a  newspaper  to  assure  myself  I  was  not  dreaming, 
but  on  laying  it  down  I  saw  you  still  there.  While 
I  gazed  without  speaking,  you  faded  away.'  " 

Of  course  in  the  case  of  all  single  experiments 
like  these,  ^  the  skeptically  inclined  might  plau- 
sibly fall  back  on  the  theory  of  chance  coincidence. 
But  it  is  impossible  seriously  to  entertain  this 
hypothesis  in  cases  where  experiments  in  the 
telepathic  transmission  of  ideas  have  been  carried 
on  repeatedly  and  with  an  astonishing  measiu"e 
of   success. 

To  mention  only  the  most  notable  experi- 
ments of  this  systematic  kind,  I  would  call  at- 
tention to  the  results  obtained  by  two  sets  of 
English  investigators,  the  first  comprising  two 
ladies  named  Clarissa  Miles  and  Hermione  Rams- 
den,  the  second  two  gentlemen,  F.  R.  Burt  and 
F.   L.   Usher.     As  I   see   it,   indeed,   the   Miles- 

1  Accounts  of  other  experiments  of  the  same  tjT)e  will  be 
found  in  my  book,  "  The  Riddle  of  Personality,"  pp.  140-142. 

[741 


WHY   I   BELIEVE  IN  TELEPATHY 

Rarasden  and  Burt-Usher  experiments  have  the 
additional  interest  that  they  not  only  make  clear 
some  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  genuine  thought 
transference,  but  also  show  just  why  it  is  that 
we  can  never  hope  to  obtain  such  absolute  con- 
trol of  the  telepathic  process  as  to  be  able  to  send 
mental  messages  from  one  to  another  with  the 
same  ease  and  certainty  as  we  now  send  ordinary 
telegrams  and  marconigrams. 

This  inability  of  control  has  long  been  a  stock 
objection  against  belief  in  telepathy,  especially 
among  the  scientifically  trained.  "  Not  until 
we  can  repeat  at  will,  and  with  invariable  success, 
the  experiment  of  direct  transference  of  thought, 
will  we  accept  telepathy  as  established,"  say  these 
scientific,  skeptics.  "  We  know  that  if,  in  our 
chemical  and  physical  laboratories,  we  bring 
such  and  such  elements  together,  such  and  such 
action  will  always  follow.  We  must  be  able  to 
do  as  much  with  telepathy  before  we  will  accept 
it."  But  the  Miles-Ramsden  and  Burt-Usher 
experiments  show  that  there  are  excellent  reasons 
for  affirming  that  telepathy  is  a  fact,  and  that 
nevertheless   its   processes    cannot   be   governed 

[75  1 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE   PSYCHICAL 

with  the  certitude  possible  in  the  case  of  chemical 
and  physical  processes.  There  are  factors  in- 
volved which  elude,  and  must  always  elude,  the 
directive  control  of  the  experimenter. 

In  the  experiments  by  the  Misses  Miles  and 
Ramsden  it  was  arranged  that,  at  a  stated  hour 
of  a  stated  evening  in  each  week.  Miss  Ramsden 
—  who   acted   throughout   as   the   percipient,   or 
receiver    of    the    telepathic    messages  —  was    to 
remain  for  a  few  minutes  in  a  condition  of  com- 
plete passivity,  and  immediately  afterwards  was 
to  note  on  a  post-card  whatever  ideas  came  into 
her  mind  during  that  time.     The  post-card  was 
then  to  be  mailed  to  Miss  Miles,  who,  for  her 
part,  was  to  think  of  Miss  Ramsden  at  intervals 
during  the  day  agreed  on,  and  in  the  evening 
was  to  make  a  post-card  entry  —  to  be  mailed  to 
her  friend  forthwith  —  of  the  idea  or  ideas  she 
had  tried  to  convey  to  her  telepathically.    Thus, 
in  the  event  of  achieving  any  degree  of  success, 
they  would  have  a  perfect  documentary  record 
to  substantiate  their  claims. 

As  to  the  distance  separating  them,  it  ranged 
from  a  few  score  to  several  hundred  miles.    They 

[76] 


WHY  I  BELIEVE  IN   TELEPATHY 

made,  in  fact,  three  distinct  series  of  experiments, 
with  about  a  year's  interval  between  each  series. 
During  the  first  they  were  at  their  homes,  Miss 
Miles  in  London,  Miss  Ramsden  in  Buckingham- 
shire. During  the  second.  Miss  Ramsden  was 
in  Inverness,  in  northern  Scotland,  and  Miss 
Miles  visiting  friends  in  various  parts  of  England. 
The  third  series  was  carried  on  while  Miss  Miles 
was  making  a  tour  of  the  beautiful  Ardennes 
region  of  France  and  Belgium,  Miss  Ramsden 
at  the  same  time  being  again  in  the  Scottish 
Highlands. 

Thus  there  was  a  progressive  increase  in  the 
distance  between  them  for  each  series,  but  this 
seems  to  have  made  no  difference  in  the  result. 
In  each,  as  the  attested  record  shows.  Miss 
Ramsden  succeeded  in  getting,  completely  or  in 
part,  no  fewer  than  two  out  of  every  five  of  the 
messages  her  co-experimenter  tried  to  "  tele- 
path  "  to  her.  Such  a  proportion  is  clearly  too 
high  to  be  explained  away  on  the  theory  of 
chance  coincidence,  and  this  theory  is  rendered 
still  more  untenable  by  the  attendant  circum- 
stances which  the  record  reveals. 

[77] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

On  one  occasion  Miss  Miles,  who  is  an  artist, 
had  been  busy  in  the  afternoon  painting  a  model's 
hands.  She  thought  of  this  when  evening  came, 
and  determined  to  endeavor  to  impress  Miss 
Ramsden  with  the  idea  "  hands."  In  her  post- 
card, written  at  seven  o'clock  the  same  evening. 
Miss  Ramsden  stated  that  of  several  ideas  which 
had  come  into  her  mind  at  the  experiment-hour 
the  "  most  vivid  "  was  "  a  little  black  hand,  quite 
small,  much  smaller  than  a  child's,  well  formed, 
and  the  fingers  straight.  This  was  the  chief 
thing." 

Similarly,  having  noticed  at  a  meeting  in  Lon- 
don a  curious  pair  of  spectacles  worn  by  a  gentle- 
man seated  near  her.  Miss  Miles,  on  returning 
home  in  the  early  evening,  wrote  down  the  word 
"  spectacles,"  with  the  idea  of  "  telepathing " 
it  to  Miss  Ramsden.  The  latter 's  post-card  entry 
for  that  evening  noted  that  "  spectacles  "  was 
*'  the  only  idea  that  came  to  me  after  waiting  a 
long  time." 

Again,  while  on  a  sketching  expedition  to  an 
English  village,  Miss  Miles  was  much  amused 
by  an  adventure  with  a  large  white   pig.      She 

[781 


WHY   I   BELIEVE  IN  TELEPATHY 

selected  this  pig  as  the  subject  of  her  next  tele- 
pathic communication,  the  result  of  which  Miss 
Ramsden,  writing  as  almost  always  on  the  night 
of  the  experiment,  thus  reported: 

"  You  were  out  of  doors  rather  late,  a  cold,  raw 
evening,  near  a  railway  station;  there  was  a  pig 
with  a  long  snout,  and  some  village  children. 
It  was  getting  dark." 

On  the  other  hand,  in  several  instances  Miss 
Ramsden's  impressions  contained  much  which 
Miss  Miles  had  not  consciously  sought  to  convey 
to  her.  And  this  brings  us  to  what  is  unquestion- 
ably the  most  important  feature  of  the  experi- 
ments. 

As  was  said,  about  two  out  of  every  five  mes- 
sages were  correctly  received,  in  whole  or  in  part. 
But  it  frequently  happened  in  the  case  of  the 
seeming  failures,  that  while  Miss  Ramsden  did  not 
get  the  ideas  which  Miss  Miles  was  endeavoring 
to  send  to  her,  she  did  get  ideas  relating  to  people, 
things  and  events  much  in  Miss  Miles's  mind  at 
that  moment,  or  which  had  been  more  or  less 
in  her  mind  during  the  day  of  the  experiment. 

To  illustrate,  Miss  Miles  once  tried  to  make 
[79] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Miss  Ramsden  think  of  "  pussies,  or  cats." 
What  Miss  Ramsden  did  think  of  was  "  a  manu- 
script, pinned  by  a  patent  fastener  in  one  cor- 
ner." And,  oddly  enough.  Miss  Miles  had  spent 
a  good  part  of  that  afternoon  reading  to  a  friend 
from  a  manuscript  "  fastened  together,"  as  the 
friend  has  testified,  "  with  a  patent  fastener." 
Similarly,  during  Miss  Miles's  visit  to  the  English 
village  above  mentioned.  Miss  Ramsden's  report 
for  one  experiment  ran: 

"  First  I  saw  dimly  a  house,  but  I  think  that 
you  wish  me  to  see  a  little  girl  with  brown  hair 
down  her  back,  tied  with  a  ribbon  in  the  usual 
way.  She  is  sitting  at  a  table  with  her  back 
turned  and  seems  very  busy  indeed.  I  think  she 
is  cutting  out  scraps  with  a  pair  of  scissors.  She 
has  on  a  white  pinafore,  and  I  should  guess  her 
age  to  be  between  eight  and  twelve." 

Miss  Miles  had  not  been  trying  to  make  Miss 
Ramsden  think  of  anything  of  the  sort.  But  the 
description  fitted  perfectly  her  landlady's  little 
daughter,  of  whom  the  mother,  Mrs.  Laura  Love- 
grove,    says : 

"  I  have  a  little  girl  aged  eleven,  with  brown 
[80] 


WHY   I   BELIEVE   IN   TELEPATHY 

hair,  tied  with  a  ribbon  in  the  usual  way.  She 
wears  a  pinafore,  and,  being  ill,  often  amuses 
herself  cutting  out  scraps." 

Another  time,  when  the  hour  for  the  experi- 
ment arrived.  Miss  Miles  forgot  all  about  it, 
being  busy  writing  letters  to  some  friends.  In 
particular  she  was  absorbed  in  framing  an  answer 
to  an  important  letter  from  a  Polish  artist, 
written  in  a  peculiar  script.  Miss  Ramsden's  re- 
port for  that  evening  was: 

"  I  felt  that  you  were  not  thinking  of  me,  but 
were  reading  a  letter  in  a  sort  of  half-German 
writing.  The  letters  have  very  long  tails  to 
them.    Is  there  any  truth  in  that?  "^ 

Significant  also  is  the  fact  that  precisely  the 
same  sort  of  thing  occurred  in  the  more  recent  ex- 
periments between  Mr.  Burt  and  Mr.  Usher,  who, 
like  Miss  Miles  and  Miss  Ramsden,  conducted 
their  investigations  in  a  careful,  methodical,  con- 
scientious way,  and  over  a  long  period  of  time. 

1  The  experiments  of  the  Misses  Miles  and  Ramsden  are 
reported  in  detail  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  vol.  xxi,  and  in  the  Journal  of  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  vol.  viii.  The  report  of  the  Burt-Usher  experiments 
appears  in  the  Annales  des  Sciences  Psychiques,  January  and  Feb- 
ruary, 1910. 

[811 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Mr.  Usher,  like  Miss  Miles,  invariably  acted 
as  the  sender  of  the  telepathic  communications, 
while  Mr.  Burt  was  the  percipient.  From  first 
to  last  the  latter  remained  in  London,  while 
Mr.  Usher  was  part  of  the  time  in  Bristol,  more 
than  one  hundred  miles  from  London,  and  part 
of  the  time  in  the  Austrian  city  of  Prague,  a 
thousand  miles  away.  On  each  experiment- 
evening  it  was  Mr.  Usher's  practice,  at  the  hour 
previously  agreed  upon,  to  sit  alone  in  a  dimly 
lighted  room,  draw  some  design  on  a  piece  of 
paper,  and  remain  for  fifteen  minutes  thinking 
intently  of  the  design  and  "  willing  "  to  transmit 
it  to  Mr.  Burt,  who,  at  the  same  hour,  would 
be  seated  in  a  darkened  room  in  London,  noting 
the  images  that  passed  before  his  mind's  eye, 
and,  at  the  expiration  of  fifteen  minutes,  setting 
down  on  paper  the  one  or  two  that  had  seemed 
to  him  most  vivid. 

Nearly  fifty  experiments  were  thus  made,  with 
results  defying  any  explanation  by  the  theory 
of  chance  coincidence.  And,  as  in  the  Miles- 
Ramsden  experiments  —  for  the  matter  of  that, 
as  also  in  Professor  Hyslop's  experiments  —  it 
[82] 


WHY  I  BELIEVE  IN  TELEPATHY 

at  times  happened  that  when  Mr.  Burt  totally 
failed  to  draw  a  design  corresponding  with  that 
which  Mr.  Usher  had  drawn,  Mr.  Burt's  design 
did  correspond  with  images  demonstrably  in  Mr. 
Usher's  mind  at  or  immediately  before  the 
moment  of  the  experiment. 

Thus,  one  evening  in  Prague  Mr.  Usher  tried 
to  make  Mr.  Burt  get  the  impression  of  an  oblong 
composed  of  numerous  small  dots.  Instead  Mr. 
Burt  saw  and  designed  a  peculiar  plume-like 
ornamentation,  which  Mr.  Usher  instantly  recog- 
nized as  a  picture  of  part  of  the  unusual  carving 
on  the  table  at  which  he  had  been  seated.  On 
another  occasion  —  the  eighteenth  experiment  — 
Mr.  Usher  sought  to  transmit  a  crude  design  of  a 
flower  in  a  pot.  What  Mr.  Burt  actually  drew 
was  an  excellent  representation  of  a  lighted  ciga- 
rette with  the  smoke  curling  away  from  it. 

"  And,"  says  Mr.  LTsher,  "  the  evening  that  he 
drew  this  was  the  first  evening  I  had  smoked  a 
cigarette  while  experimenting  with  him." 

Such  incidents,  with  those  cited  in  connection 
with  the  experiments  of  Professor  Hyslop  and 
the  Misses  Miles  and  Ramsden,  in  my  opinion 
[831 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE   PSYCHICAL 

go  to  show  exactly  why  it  is  that  one  cannot  hope 
to  obtain  unfaiHng  control  over  the  process  of 
telepathy.  For  they  indicate  that  at  bottom 
genuine  thought  transference  depends  not  so 
much  on  conscious  willing  as  on  subconscious 
feeling.  It  is  not  necessarily  the  things  about 
which  one  thinks  most  strongly,  but  rather  things 
which  are  tinged  with  some  emotional  coloring, 
that  are  most  likely  to  become  subjects  of  tele- 
pathic communication. 

And  these  experiments  further  indicate  that,  on 
the  receiver's  part  also,  the  mechanism  involved 
in  the  transmission  of  telepathic  messages  be- 
longs rather  to  the  subconscious  than  to  the 
conscious  portion  of  the  mind.  In  order  to  allow 
the  emergence  of  the  transmitted  ideas  into  the 
field  of  conscious  knowledge,  there  seems  to  be 
always  necessary  some  form  of  psychical  "  dis- 
sociation "  — ^  as  in  a  trance,  dream,  reverie,  or 
moment  of  absentmindedness.  Such  states  of 
dissociation  are  not  always  easy  to  bring  about 
voluntarily;  and  when  they  are  brought  about, 
whether  voluntarily  or  involuntarily,  it  by  no 
means  follows  that  ideas  received  telepathically 

[841 


WHY  I   BELIEVE   IN  TELEPATHY 

will  forthwith  and  rapidly  rise  above  the  threshold 
of   consciousness. 

For,  as  recent  psychological  experiment  and 
observation  have  shown,  in  dissociated  states 
the  tendency  is  for  the  emergence  chiefly  of 
ideas  which,  through  their  emotional  associations, 
are  of  deep  personal  significance  —  as  when  we 
dream  of  persons  or  things  associated  with  events 
that  once  affected  us  profoundly.  Every  one  of 
us  has  subconscious  reminiscences  of  this  sort, 
and  with  these  personal  subconscious  reminis- 
cences any  ideas  which  have  been  transmitted 
telepathically  have  of  necessity  to  compete  for 
emergence.  They  may  get  through  or  they  may 
not;  whether  they  will  get  through  apparently 
depends  in  large  measure  on  the  degree  of  their 
own  emotional  intensity. 

Hence  it  is  that  that  scientist  is  doomed  to 
perpetual  unbelief  who  boasts  that  he  will  never 
place  credence  in  telepathy  until  he  can  play 
with  it  as  he  plays  with  the  chemicals  in  his  test 
tubes.  One  cannot  handle  feelings  as  one  can 
handle  a  chemical  compound,  nor  can  one  manip- 
ulate at  will  the  subconscious  as  though  it  were 

[85] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

a  physical  substance.  Hence,  too,  the  case  for 
telepathy  must  always  rest  less  on  experimental 
evidence  —  strong  though  the  Miles-Ramsden 
and  Burt-Usher  experiments  demonstrate  that 
this  sometimes  is  —  than  on  well-authenticated 
instances  of  spontaneous  occurrence,  which  have 
been  recorded  in  ever-increasing  volume  since 
systematic  investigation  of  the  subject  was  first 
undertaken  a  scant  quarter  of  a  century  ago. 

In  such  instances,  the  records  further  show, 
one  of  the  commonest  forms  in  which  the  tele- 
pathic message  is  received  is  that  of  an  auditory 
hallucination,  as  in  the  "  voice  "  heard  by  me  on 
the  shore  of  the  Canadian  lake  and  on  the  bank 
of  Niagara  River.  When  there  is  connected  with 
the  sending  of  the  message  some  supreme  crisis 
in  the  career  of  the  sender  —  the  crisis,  it  may  be, 
of  the  moment  of  death  —  the  auditory  hallu- 
cination is  sometimes  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
make  its  dire  meaning  almost  seK-evident.  In 
this  respect  I  know  of  nothing  more  striking 
than  a  strange  case  reported,  with  ample  cor- 
roborative evidence,  to  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research. 

[86] 


WHY  I   BELIEVE   IN   TELEPATHY 

The  narrator,  a  well-to-do  Englishman,  was 
living  at  the  time  in  a  country  house.  It  was 
early  spring,  and  on  the  night  of  his  telepathic 
experience  there  had  been  a  slight  snowfall,  just 
sufficient  to  make  the  ground  white.  After 
dinner  he  spent  the  evening  writing  until  ten 
o'clock,  when,  to  continue  the  story  in  his  own 
words: 

"  I  got  up  and  left  the  room,  taking  a  lamp 
from  the  hall  table,  and  placing  it  on  a  small  table 
standing  in  a  recess  of  the  window  in  the  break- 
fast-room. The  curtains  were  not  drawn  across 
the  window.  I  had  just  taken  down  from  the 
nearest  bookcase  a  volume  of  '  Macgillivray's 
British  Birds  '  for  reference,  and  was  in  the  act 
of  reading  the  passage,  the  book  held  close  to 
the  lamp,  and  my  shoulder  touching  the  window 
shutter,  and  in  a  position  when  almost  the  slight- 
est sound  would  be  heard,  when  I  distinctly  heard 
the  front  gate  opened  and  shut  again  with  a  clap, 
and  footsteps  advancing  at  a  run  up  the  drive; 
when  opposite  the  window  the  steps  changed 
from  sharp  and  distinct  on  gravel  to  dull  and 
less  clear  on  the   grass-slip    below  the  window, 

[87] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

and  at  the  same  time  I  was  conscious  that  some 
one  or  something  stood  close  to  me  outside,  only 
the  thin  shutter  and  a  sheet  of  glass  dividing 
us. 

"  I  could  hear  the  quick,  panting,  labored 
breathing  of  the  messenger,  or  whatever  it  was, 
as  if  trying  to  recover  breath  before  speaking. 
Had  he  been  attracted  by  the  light  through  the 
shutter .f^  Suddenly,  like  a  gunshot,  inside,  out- 
side, and  all  around,  there  broke  out  the  most 
appalling  shriek  —  a  prolonged  wail  of  horror, 
which  seemed  to  freeze  the  blood.  It  was  not  a 
single  shriek,  but  more  prolonged,  commencing 
in  a  high  key,  and  then  less  and  less,  wailing 
away  toward  the  north,  and  becoming  weaker 
and  weaker  as  it  receded  in  sobbing  pulsations 
of  intense  agony. 

"  Of  my  fright  and  horror  I  can  say  nothing  — 
increased  tenfold  when  I  walked  into  the  dining- 
room  and  found  my  wife  sitting  quietly  at  her 
work  close  to  the  window,  in  the  same  line  and 
distant  only  ten  or  twelve  feet  from  the  corre- 
sponding window  in  the  breakfast-room.  She 
had  heard  nothing.     I  could   see  that   at  once; 

[88] 


WHY   I   BELIEVE   IN   TELEPATHY 

and  from  the  position  in  which  slie  was  sitting, 
I  knew  she  could  not  have  failed  to  hear  any 
noise  outside  and  any  footsteps  on  the  ground. 
Perceiving  I  was  alarmed  about  something,  she 
asked : 

"  '  What  is  the  matter?  ' 

"  *  Only  some  one  outside,'  I  said. 

"  '  Then,  why  do  you  not  go  out  and  seer 
You  always  do  when  you  hear  any  unusual 
noise.' 

"  '  There  is  something  queer  and  dreadful 
about  this  noise,'  I  replied.    '  I  dare  not  face  it.'  " 

Nothing  more  was  heard,  and  early  next  morn- 
ing he  made  a  careful  search  in  the  grounds 
around  the  house,  but  not  a  footprint  was  to  be 
seen  in  the  snow,  which  had  ceased  falling  long 
before  the  occurrence  of  the  wailing  cry.  A  little 
later  in  the  day,  however,  word  arrived  that  at 
ten  o'clock  the  previous  night  one  of  his  tenants, 
who  lived  half  a  mile  distant  and  with  whom  he 
had  spent  the  afternoon,  had  committed  suicide 
by  drinking  prussic  acid. 

He  had  gone  up  to  his  bedroom,  his  groom 
testified  at  the  inquest,  had  mixed  the  poison  in 

[89] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN   THE  PSYCHICAL 

a  tumbler  of  water,  drank  it  off,  and,  with  a  terrible 
scream,  fell  dead  on  the  floor. 

Fortunately,  telepathic  hallucinations  do  not 
usually  come  with  such  intensity  or  in  such  an 
alarming  form.  Often  they  are  mere  vague  im- 
pressions that  something  unpleasant  or  disas- 
trous is  occurring  to  a  relative  or  friend,  and,  as 
in  the  case  of  self-originating  hallucinations  like 
that  reported  by  Lady  Eardley,  they  occasionally 
impel  to  action  that  averts  disaster.  It  was  thus, 
to  give  a  single  instance,  in  an  experience  re- 
ported ^  by  William  Blakeway,  a  Staffordshire 
Englishman : 

"  I  was  in  my  usual  place  at  chapel  one  Sunday 
afternoon,  when  all  at  once  I  thought  I  must  go 
home.  Seemingly  against  my  will,  I  took  my 
hat.  When  reaching  the  chapel  gates  I  felt  an 
impulse  that  I  must  hasten  home  as  quick  as 
possible,  and  I  ran  with  all  my  might  without 
stopping  to  take  breath.  Meeting  a  friend  who 
asked  why  I  hurried  so,  I  passed  him  almost  with- 
out notice. 

"  Wlien  I  reached  home  I  found  the  house  full 
1  In  "  Phantasms  of  the  Living,"  vol.  ii,  pp.  377-378. 

[90] 


WHY   I  BELIEVE  IN  TELEPATHY 

of  smoke,  and  my  little  boy,  three  years  old,  all 
on  fire,  alone  in  the  house.  I  at  once  tore  the 
burning  clothes  from  off  him,  and  was  just  in 
time  to  save  his  life.  It  has  always  been  a  mystery 
to  me,  as  no  person  whispered  a  word  to  me,  and 
no  one  knew  anything  about  the  fire  till  after 
I  made  the  alarm  at  home,  which  was  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  chapel." 

Here  the  wholly  subconscious  nature  of  the 
phenomenon,  on  the  percipient's  part  at  all 
events,  is  plainly  evident.  It  is  even  more  evi- 
dent in  all  cases  where,  as  frequently  occurs,  the 
telepathic  message  is  received  in  a  dream  like 
that  which  was  recorded  in  the  opening  para- 
graphs of  this  chapter.  As  is  to  be  expected,  too, 
in  telepathic  dreams  we  often  find  an  element  of 
symbolism.  The  news  of  illness,  of  accident,  of 
death,  or  whatever  it  may  be,  is  not  conveyed 
directly,  but  indirectly,  amid  a  mass  of  more  or 
less  relevant  details  of  dream  imagery. 

A  couple  of  years  ago  I  received  a  letter  from  a 
lady  living  in  Brooklyn,  describing  an  experience 
that  admirably  illustrates  this  point.  Her  dream, 
however,  was  of  such  an  intimate  character  that 

[911 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

the  names  of  the  persons  and  places  must  be 
suppressed.  Five  years  ago,  this  lady  writes,  her 
daughter  became  interested  in  a  young  man, 
Mr.  v.,  v/hose  suit,  however,  the  mother  dis- 
couraged. Afterwards  her  daughter  met,  fell  in 
love  with,  and  was  happily  married  to  a  physi- 
cian in  the  Government  service.  She  soon  went 
abroad  with  her  husband,  to  a  remote  and  isolated 
post.     My  informant  continues: 

"  We  could  not  hear  from  them  all  winter 
because  they  were  ice-bound,  but  my  thoughts 
of  them  were  always  most  delightful,  for  their 
last  letters  were  bubbling  over  with  happiness, 
and  I  was  lovingly  busy  getting  things  ready  for 
them. 

"  Mr.  V.  had  almost  passed  from  my  mind, 
when  one  morning,  in  the  middle  of  June,  I 
arose,  took  a  bath,  and,  having  a  half-hour  to 
spare,  went  back  to  bed  again,  falling  into  a 
deep    sleep. 

"  Suddenly  Mr.  V.  appeared  to  me  in  one  of 
my  lower  rooms.  It  seemed  to  be  breakfast 
time,  and  I  invited  him  to  have  some.  He  ac- 
cepted, and  we  sat  together  for  some  time,  but 

[921 


WHY  I  BELIEVE  IN  TELEPATHY 

I  do  not  remember  any  of  our  conversation. 
Suddenly  he  arose,  faced  me,  and,  looking  straight 
into  my  eyes,  said  emphatically: 

Now  she  is  mine!  Nothing  you  can  do  will 
ever  separate  us  again!  This  time  she  will  belong 
to  me! ' 

"  I  awoke  with  a  start,  much  frightened.  Then, 
realizing  the  situation,  I  thanked  Heaven  she 
was  safely  married,  and  promptly  put  the  dream 
from  me.  This  was  about  eight  o'clock.  At  ten 
a  despatch  reached  me  saying  that  my  daughter's 
husband  had  died,  from  the  result  of  a  boating 
accident  two  weeks  before." 

Or,  when  apprehended  in  dream,  the  telepathic 
message  may  be  so  distorted  that  its  true  meaning 
cannot  possibly  be  recognized  immediately.  A 
characteristic  case  of  this  kind  occurred  at  the 
time  of  President  Lincoln's  assassination,  though 
it  is  only  recently  that  it  was  for  the  first  time 
reported  in  detail  by  Mrs.  E.  H.  Hughes,  daughter 
of  the  San  Francisco  architect,  S.  C.  Bugbee. 
It  should  be  explained  that  before  removing  to 
California  from  Massachusetts  in  1863,  the  Bug- 
bees  were  well  acquainted  with  the  Booth  family, 

[93] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

and  that  John  Wilkes  Booth  was  an  especial 
favorite  of  Mrs.  Bugbee's.  Says  Mrs.  Hughes, 
in  her  report  to  the  American  Institute  for  Scien- 
tific Research:  ^ 

"  One  night  my  mother  woke  my  father  sud- 
denly, saying:  'Oh,  Charles!  I  have  had  such 
a  terrible  dream!  I  dreamed  that  John  Wilkes 
Booth  shot  me!  It  seemed  that  he  sent  me  seats 
for  a  private  box  in  a  theater,  and  I  took  some 
young  ladies  with  me.  Between  the  acts  he  came 
to  me,  and  asked  me  how  I  liked  the  play.  I 
exclaimed,  "  Why,  John  Booth!  I  am  surprised 
that  you  could  put  such  a  questionable  play 
upon  the  stage.  I  am  mortified  to  think  that 
I  have  brought  young  ladies  to  see  it."  At  that 
he  raised  a  pistol,  and  shot  me  in  the  back  of  the 
neck.  It  seems  as  if  I  felt  a  pain  there  now/ 
After  a  while  my  mother  fell  asleep,  and  dreamed 
the  same  thing  a  second  time. 

"  The  next  morning  came  the  terrible  news 
which  plunged  the  nation  into  grief  and  mourning. 
Almost  at  the  hour  of  my  mother's  dream,  Presi- 

1  Journal  of  the  American  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol. 
iv,  pp.  210-217. 

[94] 


WHY  I  BELIEVE  IN  TELEPATHY 

dent  Lincoln  was  assassinated;  shot,  in  the  back 
of  the  neck,  in  a  private  box  at  a  theater,  by 
John  Wilkes  Booth." 

On  the  other  hand,  there  may  be  no  sym- 
bolism or  distortion,  the  dream  corresponding 
so  realistically  with  the  event  as  to  make  its 
significance  manifest.  To  give  an  illustration, 
Mrs.  Morris  Griffith,  an  Englishwoman,  re- 
ports : 

"  On  the  night  of  Saturday,  the  eleventh  of 
March,  I  awoke  in  much  alarm,  having  seen  my 
eldest  son,  then  at  St.  Paul  de  Loanda  on  the 
southwest  coast  of  Africa,  looking  dreadfully  ill 
and  emaciated,  and  I  heard  his  voice  distinctly 
calling  to  me.  I  was  so  disturbed  I  could  not 
sleep  again,  but  every  time  I  closed  my  eyes  the 
appearance  recurred,  and  his  voice  sounded  dis- 
tinctly, calling  me  'Mamma!'  I  felt  greatly 
depressed  all  through  the  next  day,  which  was 
Sunday,  but  I  did  not  mention  it  to  my  husband, 
as  he  was  an  invalid,  and  I  feared  to  disturb  him. 
Strange  to  say,  he  also  suffered  from  intense  low 
spirits  all  day,  and  we  were  both  unable  to  take 
dinner,  he  rising  from  the  table,  saying:  '  I  don't 
[951 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

care  what  it  costs,  I  must  have  the  boy  back,'  al- 
luding to  his  eldest  son. 

"  I  mentioned  my  dream  and  the  bad  night 
I  had  had  to  two  or  three  friends,  but  begged 
that  they  would  say  nothing  of  it  to  Mr.  Griffith. 
The  next  day  a  letter  arrived,  containing  some 
photos  of  my  son,  saying  he  had  had  fever,  but 
was  better,  and  hoped  immediately  to  leave  for  a 
much  more  healthy  station.  We  heard  no  more 
till  the  ninth  of  May,  when  a  letter  arrived  with 
the  news  of  our  son's  death  from  a  fresh  attack 
of  fever,  on  the  night  of  the  eleventh  of  March, 
and  adding  that  just  before  his  death  he  kept 
calling  repeatedly  for  me."  ^ 

It  is  only  a  short  transition  from  such  a  dream 
as  this  to  a  waking  hallucination  in  which  — 
as  in  the  cases  of  experimental  occurrence  men- 
tioned above,  and  those  other  cases  detailed  in 
the  preceding  chapter  —  phantom  forms  are  dis- 
cerned at  the  moment  when  the  person  seen  is 
threatened  by  some  danger  or  is  passing  through 
the  supreme  crisis  of  death. 

But  now,  accepting  telepathy  as  an  established 

^  "  Phantasms  of  the  Living,"  vol.  i,  pp.  343-344. 

[96] 


WHY   I   BELIEVE   IN   TELEPATHY 

fact,  the  problem  remains:  How  are  we  to  explain 
it?  What  is  the  mechanism  by  which  one  person 
is  able  to  transmit  messages  directly  and  instan- 
taneously to  another  person  although  they  may 
be  half  the  world  apart? 

To  this  question,  it  must  frankly  be  admitted, 
no  positive  answer  can  as  yet  be  returned.  But 
some  extremely  plausible  hypotheses  have  been 
advanced,  not  by  mere  theorists  but  by  eminent 
men  of  science,  who,  themselves  affirming  the 
actuality  of  telepathy,  have  given  much  thought 
to  the  problem  of  its  mode  of  operation. 

Sir  William  Crookes,  for  example,  calling  at- 
tention to  the  marvelous  but  undisputed  facts 
of  ethereal  vibration  as  evidenced  by  the  phe- 
nomena of  wireless  telegraphy  and  the  Rontgen 
rays,  urges  that  here  we  have  quite  possibly  an 
adequate  explanation  of  the  mystery  of  telepathy 
on  a  wholly  naturalistic  basis  —  that  is  to  say, 
a  basis  which  enables  us  to  accept  telepathy  with- 
out dislocating  our  entire  conception  of  the 
physical   universe. 

"  It  seems  to  me,"  he  suggests,  "  that  in  these 
rays  [Rontgen  rays]  we  may  have  a  possible  way 

[97] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

of  transmitting  intelligence  which,  with  a  few  rea- 
sonable postulates,  may  supply  the  key  to  much 
that  is  obscure  in  psychical  research.  Let  it  be 
assumed  that  these  rays,  or  rays  of  even  higher 
frequency,  can  pass  into  the  brain  and  act  on 
some  nervous  center  there.  Let  it  be  conceived 
that  the  brain  contains  a  center  which  uses  these 
rays  as  the  vocal  chords  use  sound  vibrations 
(both  being  under  the  command  of  intelligence), 
and  sends  them  out,  with  the  velocity  of  light,  to 
impinge  on  the  receiving  ganglion  of  another 
brain.  In  this  same  way  the  phenomena  of 
telepathy,  and  the  transmission  of  intelligence 
from  one  sensitive  to  another  through  long  dis- 
tances, seem  to  come  into  the  domain  of  law  and 
can  be  grasped."  ^ 

This  undoubtedly  is  the  explanation  that  most 
strongly  commends  itself  to  those  scientists  who 
courageously  acknowledge  their  belief  in  telep- 
athy. Nor  do  they  see  any  objection  to  it  in  the 
fact  that  people  apparently  are  affected  by  the 
telepathic  impulse  only  at  certain  times.    For  the 

1  Presidential  Address  to  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
January  29,  1897. 

[98] 


WHY   I   BELIEVE   IN   TELEPATHY 

brain  of  both  sender  and  receiver  may  conceiv- 
ably, on  the  analogy  of  wireless  telegraphy,  be 
set  to  transmit  and  receive  telepathic  communi- 
cations only  when  attuned  to  vibrations  of  a 
certain  amplitude.  There  is,  however,  as  Sir 
William  Crookes  himself  has  recognized,  another 
and  really  formidable  objection  to  this  vibratory 
hypothesis. 

It  is  found  in  the  fact  that,  assuming  telepathic 
messages  to  be  conveyed  by  a  system  of  infinitely 
minute  waves  in  the  ether,  we  logically  have  also 
to  assume  that  these  waves  would  still  obey 
what  is  known  as  the  law  of  inverse  squares. 
By  this  is  meant  that,  spreading  on  every  side 
in  ever-expanding  waves,  they  would  lose  power 
in  proportion  to  the  square  of  the  distance  from 
their  source.  Consequently,  it  would  not  only 
require  a  tremendous  initial  energy  to  project 
them  any  great  distance,  but  the  farther  they 
were  sent  the  feebler  they  would  become,  so  that 
in  the  case  of  a  percipient  remote  from  the  agent, 
either  the  telepathic  message  would  not  be  re- 
ceived at  all  or  at  most  it  would  be  received  in 
exceedingly    attenuated    fashion.      Whereas    the 

[99] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

fact  is  that,  according  to  the  results  of  such  ex- 
perimentation as  that  which  I  have  described, 
complete  failure  often  occurs  when  the  experi- 
menters are  only  a  few  yards  apart,  and  brilliant 
successes  are  sometimes  achieved  at  distances  of 
hundreds   of   miles. 

This  consideration  has  led  some  thinkers  — 
notably  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  Professor  W.  F.  Barrett, 
and  the  late  F.  W.  H.  Myers  —  to  abandon  out- 
right all  attempt  at  an  explanation  on  a  natural- 
istic basis,  and  to  advance  instead  the  view  that 
telepathy  is  not  explicable  in  physical  terms 
because  it  is  a  wholly  psychical  process  —  "a 
direct  and  supersensuous  communion  of  mind 
with  mind."  After  all,  though,  as  Mr.  Frank 
Podmore  has  pointed  out,  this  view  rests  simply 
on  a  negation  —  our  present  inability  to  con- 
ceive a  thoroughly  satisfactory  explanation;  and 
at  any  time  scientific  research  may  remove  that 
inability,  as  has  happened  again  and  again  in  the 
past  in  the  case  of  other  and  seemingly  equally 
inexplicable   phenomena. 

Meanwhile,  all  that  we,  scientists  and  laymen 
alike,  need  do,  is  to  remember  that  inability  to 
[100] 


WHY   I   BELIEVE  IN  TELEPATHY 

explain  gives  us  of  itself  no  warrant  to  deny.  We 
must  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  facts  before 
accepting  or  rejecting  them.  And  for  myself 
I  can  only  say  that  the  actuality  of  telepathy 
has  to  my  mind  been  absolutely  proved.  With 
Sir  Oliver  Lodge: 

"  I  am  prepared  to  confess  that  the  weight  of 
testimony  is  sufficient  to  satisfy  my  own  mind 
that  such  things  do  undoubtedly  occur;  that 
the  distance  between  England  and  India  is  no 
barrier  to  the  sympathetic  communication  of 
intelligence  in  some  way  of  which  we  are  at 
present  ignorant;  that  just  as  a  signaling-key  in 
London  causes  a  telegraphic  instrument  to  re- 
spond instantaneously  in  Teheran  —  which  is  an 
everyday  occurrence  —  so  the  danger  or  death 
of  a  distant  child,  or  brother,  or  husband,  may 
be  signaled  without  wire  or  telegraph  clerk,  to  the 
heart  of  a  human  being  fitted  to  be  the  recipient 
of  such  a  message." 


[101] 


CHAPTER  III 

CLAIRVOYANCE   AND    CRYSTAL  -  GAZING 

THE  word  clairvoyance  has  acquired  a  de- 
cidedly sinister  meaning  in  most  people's 
minds.  It  is  associated  with  professional  spirit- 
istic mediums,  who  lay  claim  to  supernatural 
powers  which  they  are  ready,  at  a  moment's  no- 
tice, to  exercise  for  all  who  are  credulous  enough 
to  pay  the  fee  they  demand.  Newspapers  through- 
out the  country  daily  contain  advertisements  of 
clairvoyants  of  this  type,  arrant  humbugs,  most 
of  them,  but  often  able,  through  cunningly  ac- 
quiring information  regarding  their  "  sitters'  " 
Uves  and  family  relationships,  to  persuade  their 
victims  that  while  "  entranced  "  they  are  actu- 
ally in  contact  with  the  "  spirit  world."  Re- 
peated exposures  of  their  fraudulent  methods 
have  not  driven  them  out  of  business,  but  have 
inspired  a  widespread  and  healthy  distrust  of 
their  pretensions. 

[102] 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND   CRYSTAL-GAZING 

Nevertheless,  it  would  be  rash  to  conclude,  as 
many  of  us  do,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
genuine  clairvoyance,  by  which  is  meant  the 
ability  to  perceive  distant  scenes  and  events  as 
if  one  were  bodily  present  at  the  place  of  their 
occurrence.  That  such  a  faculty  exists,  al- 
though usable  only  on  rare  occasions,  and  that 
there  is  nothing  in  the  least  supernatural  about 
it,  are  facts  definitely  established  by  the  scientif- 
ically trained  investigators  who  have  been  dili- 
gently attacking  this  and  other  psychical  prob- 
lems the  past  twenty-five  years.  Their  researches 
have  made  it  evident  that  in  order  to  explain 
genuine  clairvoyant  phenomena  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  postulate  the  intervention  of  "  spirits," 
or  the  flight  through  space  of  the  clairvoyant's 
"  astral  body."  At  most,  clairvoyance  is  simply 
a  special  form  of  telepathy,  differing  in  degree 
but  not  in  kind  from  the  phenomena  discussed  in 
the  preceding  chapter. 

There  is  absolutely  no  evidence  to  justify  the 
hypothesis  of  so-called  "  independent  clairvoy- 
ance," advocated  by  occultists  of  every  shade  of 
spiritistic  belief,  and  utilized  by  unscrupulous 
[103] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

tricksters  to  dazzle  the  imagination  of  their 
dupes.  On  the  other  hand,  as  I  hope  to  make 
convincingly  clear,  there  is  plenty  of  proof  that 
the  scenes  which  the  true  clairvoyant  perceives, 
and  is  frequently  able  to  describe  with  graphic 
detail,  are  in  reality  only  mental  images,  visual 
hallucinations,  developed  by  the  same  process 
that  enables  any  ordinary  telepathic  message  to 
be  apprehended. 

It  must  be  acknowledged,  however,  that  the 
telepathic  connection  is  sometimes  extremely 
difficult  to  trace;  as,  for  example,  in  the  few 
indisputable  instances,  reported  by  Professor 
James  and  other  trustworthy  investigators,  in 
which  the  services  of  clairvoyants  have  been 
successfully  invoked  to  find  the  bodies  of  persons 
drowned  or  otherwise  accidentally  killed  under 
circumstances  seemingly  precluding  any  one  from 
having  knowledge  of  the  place  or  manner  of  their 
death. 

A   typical    case   of   the   kind   occurred    a   few 
years  ago  in  connection  with  the  mysterious  death 
of  a  New  Hampshire  girl.  Miss  Bertha  Huse,  of 
Enfield,  who  was  drowned  in  Mascoma  Lake. 
[1041 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND  CRYSTAL-GAZING 

For  three  days  after  the  disappearance  of  Miss 
Huse,  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  her  townspeople 
searched  vainly  for  her.  She  had  last  been  seen 
alive  on  a  long  bridge  crossing  the  lake,  and  it 
was  supposed  that  she  had  fallen  from  it  or  had 
deliberately  committed  suicide.  The  waters  were 
dragged  but  without  result,  and  failure  also 
attended  the  efforts  of  a  professional  diver  from 
Boston  employed  by  a  sympathetic  citizen. 

Meantime,  in  the  little  town  of  Lebanon,  some 
miles  distant,  a  Mrs.  Titus  fell  into  a  trance, 
during  which  she  talked  to  her  husband  and 
described  to  him  a  spot  in  the  lake  where  she  said 
the  body  of  the  Huse  girl  was  lying.  So  strongly 
was  Mr.  Titus  impressed  by  her  statements  that, 
next  day,  he  took  her  to  Enfield,  where  the  diver, 
following  her  instructions,  quickly  found  the 
body  in  the  place  located  by  her. 

Mrs.  Titus  afterwards  gave  other,  if  less  sensa- 
tional, demonstrations  of  a  similar  character; 
and  Professor  James,  who  made  a  close  study  of 
her  case,  publicly  stated  his  belief  that  her  ex- 
periences form  "  a  decidedly  solid  document  in 
favor  of  the  admission  of  a  supernormal  faculty 
[105] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

of  seership  —  whatever  preciser  meaning  may 
later  come  to  be  attached  to  such  a  phrase." 

There  are  also  on  record  certain  well-attested 
dreams  presenting  the  same  difficulty  of  identi- 
fying the  agent,  or  sender,  of  the  clairvoyant 
vision.  A  characteristic  dream  of  this  sort  is 
reported  by  Mrs.  Alfred  Wedgwood,  daughter- 
in-law  of  the  English  savant,  Hensleigh  Wedg- 
wood. 

"  I  spent  the  Christmas  holidays  with  my 
father-in-law  in  Queen  Anne  Street,"  says  Mrs. 
Wedgwood,^  "  and  in  the  beginning  of  January 
I  had  a  remarkably  vivid  dream,  which  I  told  to 
him  next  morning  at  breakfast. 

"  I  dreamed  I  went  to  a  strange  house,  stand- 
ing at  the  corner  of  a  street.  When  I  reached  the 
top  of  the  stairs  I  noticed  a  window  opposite 
with  a  little  colored  glass,  short  muslin  blinds 
running  on  a  brass  rod.  The  top  of  the  ceiling 
had  a  window  veiled  by  colored  muslin.  There 
were  two  small  shrubs  on  a  little  table.  The 
drawing-room  had  a  bow  window,  with  the  same 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  vii, 
pp.  47-48. 

[106] 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND  CRYSTAL-GAZING 

blinds;  the  library  had  a  polished  floor,  with 
the  same  blinds. 

"  As  I  was  going  to  a  child's  party  at  a  cousin's, 
whose  house  I  had  never  seen,  I  told  my  father- 
in-law  I  thought  that  that  would  prove  to  be  the 
house. 

"  On  January  tenth  I  went  with  my  little  boy 
to  the  party,  and,  by  mistake,  gave  the  driver  a 
wrong  number.  When  he  stopped  at  number 
twenty,  I  had  misgivings  about  the  house,  and 
remarked  to  the  cabman  that  it  was  not  a  corner 
house.  The  servant  could  not  tell  me  where 
Mrs,  H.  lived,  and  had  not  a  blue-book.  Then  I 
thought  of  my  dream,  and,  as  a  last  resource,  I 
walked  down  the  street,  looking  up  for  the  pecul- 
iar blinds  I  had  observed  in  my  dream.  These 
I  met  with  at  number  fifty,  a  corner  house,  and, 
knocking  at  the  door,  was  relieved  to  find  that 
it  was  the  house  of  which  I  was  in  search. 

"  On  going  up-stairs,  the  room  and  windows 
corresponded  with  what  I  had  seen  in  my  dream, 
and  the  same  little  shrubs  in  their  pots  were 
standing  on  the  landing.  The  window  in  which 
I  had  seen  the  colored  glass  was  hidden  by  the 
[107] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

blind  being  down,  but  I  learned  on  inquiry  that 
it  was  really  there." 

In  this  case  the  dream,  though  devoid  of  any 
dramatic  feature,  served  a  useful  purpose,  as 
did  a  much  more  spectacular  dream  occurring  to 
Doctor  A.  K.  Young,  an  Irish  magistrate  and 
land-owner.^  In  his  dream  he  suddenly  found 
himself  standing  at  the  gate  of  a  friend's  park, 
many  miles  from  home.  Near  by  were  a  group 
of  persons,  one  a  woman  with  a  basket  on  her 
arm,  the  rest  men,  four  of  whom  were  tenants  of 
his  own,  while  the  others  were  unknown  to  him. 
Some  of  the  strangers  seemed  to  be  making  a 
murderous  attack  on  one  of  his  tenants,  and  he 
ran  to  his  rescue. 

"  I  struck  violently  at  the  man  on  my  left," 
he  says,  "  and  then  with  greater  violence  at  the 
man  to  my  right.  Finding  to  my  surprise  that 
I  did  not  knock  either  of  them  down,  I  struck 
again  and  again,  with  all  the  violence  of  a  man 
frenzied  at  the  sight  of  my  poor  friend's  murder. 
To  my  great  amazement,  I  saw  that  my  arms, 

^  The  evidence  relating  to  this  dream  will  be  found  in  "  Phan- 
tasms of  the  Living,"  vol.  i,  pp.  381-383. 

[1081 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND  CRYSTAL-GAZING 

although  visible  to  my  eye,  were  without  sub- 
stance; and  the  bodies  of  the  men  I  struck  at 
and  my  own  came  close  together  after  each  blow 
through  the  shadowy  arms  I  struck  with.  My 
blows  were  delivered  with  more  extreme  violence 
than  I  think  I  ever  exerted;  but  I  became  pain- 
fully convinced  of  my  incompetency.  I  have  no 
consciousness  of  what  happened,  after  this  feeling 
of  unsubstantiality  came  upon  me." 

Next  morning  Doctor  Young  awoke  feeling 
stiff  and  sore,  and  his  wife  informed  him  that 
he  had  greatly  alarmed  her  during  the  night  by 
striking  out  "as  if  fighting  for  his  life."  He 
then  told  her  of  his  curious  dream,  and  asked 
her  to  remember  the  names  of  the  actors  in  it 
recognized  by  him.  The  following  day  he  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  his  land  agent  stating  that 
the  tenant  whom  he  had  dreamed  he  saw  at- 
tacked had  been  found  unconscious,  and  ap- 
parently dying,  at  the  very  spot  where  Doctor 
Young  had  in  his  dream  tried  to  defend  him; 
and  tbat  there  was  no  clue  to  his  assailants. 

That  night  Doctor  Y^oung  started  for  the 
scene  of  the  tragedy,  and  immediately  upon  his 
[109] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

arrival  appHed  to  the  local  magistrate  for  war- 
rants for  the  arrest  of  the  three  men  whom,  be- 
sides the  injured  tenant,  he  had  recognized  in 
the  vision.  All  three,  when  arrested  and  ques- 
tioned separately,  told  the  same  story,  confirm- 
ing the  details  of  the  dream,  even  to  the  incident 
of  the  presence  of  the  woman  with  the  basket. 
They  had  said  nothing  about  the  affair  because 
they  were  afraid  it  would  make  trouble  for  them, 
but  they  denied  any  complicity  in  it,  asserting 
that  while  walking  home  with  them  between 
eleven  and  twelve  at  night,  the  tenant  —  who, 
by  the  way,  ultimately  recovered  —  had  been 
attacked  by  a  couple  of  strangers,  whose  com- 
panions had  prevented  them  from  interfering  to 
protect  him. 

According  to  Mi's.  Young,  it  was  between 
eleven  and  twelve  o'clock  on  the  night  of  the 
fight  that  her  sleeping  husband  had  frightened 
her  by  his  violent  actions. 

Here  the  telepathic  impulse  causing  the  clair- 
voyant dream  may  have  come  either  from  the 
injured  tenant  himself  or  from  one  of  the  three 
spectators  known  to  Doctor  Y^oung.  The  diflS- 
[1101 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND   CRYSTAL-GAZING 

culty  is  to  conceive  an  adequate  reason  for  any 
of  them  thinking  of  him,  even  subconsciously. 
But,  granting  for  argument's  sake  the  possibiHty 
of  independent  clairvoyance,  the  still  more  thorny 
question  at  once  arises  why  his  "  astral  body  " 
should  have  chosen  to  journey  to  that  precise 
spot  at  that  precise  moment. 

The  obstacles  in  the  way  of  such  a  conception 
as  independent  clairvoyance  are  too  serious  to  be 
overcome.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  resort  to  it,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  in  the  vast  majority  of 
clairvoyant  cases  it  is  possible  to  establish  defi- 
nitely the  telepathic  association. 

Here,  by  way  of  illustration,  is  a  typical  case, 
fully  as  impressive  as  Doctor  Young's,  but 
leaving  no  doubt  as  to  its  origin.  It  was  reported 
to  the  Society  for  Psycliical  Research  by  Mrs. 
Hilda  West,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Crowe,  who 
was  at  the  time  British  consul  general  for  Nor- 
way. 

"  My  father  and  brother,"  runs  Mrs.  West's 

narrative,  "  were  on  a  journey  during  the  winter. 

I   was   expecting   them   home,   without   knowing 

the  exact  day  of  their  return.    I  had  gone  to  bed 

[111] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

at  the  usual  time,  about  eleven  p.  m.  Some  time 
in  the  night  I  had  a  vivid  dream,  which  made  a 
great  impression  on  me. 

"  I  dreamed  I  was  looking  out  of  a  window, 
when  I  saw  father  driving  in  a  Spids  sledge,  fol- 
lowed in  another  by  my  brother.  They  had  to 
pass  a  cross-road,  on  which  another  traveler  was 
driving  very  fast,  also  in  a  sledge  with  one  horse. 
Father  seemed  to  drive  on  without  observing  the 
other  fellow,  who  would,  without  fail,  have 
driven  over  father  if  he  had  not  made  his  horse 
rear,  so  that  I  saw  my  father  drive  under  the 
hoofs  of  the  horse.  Every  moment  I  expected 
the  horse  would  fall  down  and  crush  him.  I  cried 
out  '  Father!  Father! '  and  woke  in  a  great 
fright. 

"  The  next  morning  my  father  and  brother  re- 
turned. I  said  to  them:  '  I  am  so  glad  to  see  you 
arrive  quite  safely,  as  I  had  such  a  dreadful  dream 
about  you  last  night.'  My  brother  said:  'You 
could  not  have  been  in  greater  fright  about  him 
than  I  was.'  And  then  he  related  to  me  what 
had  happened,  which  talHed  exactly  with  my 
dream.  My  brother  in  his  fright,  when  he  saw 
[112] 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND  CRYSTAL-GAZING 

the  feet  of  the  horse  over  father's  head,  called 
out:    '  Oh,  father!    Father!  '  " 

Compare  with  this  the  very  similar  instance  of 
clairvoyance  in  a  waking  or  semi-waking  state, 
experienced  by  Mrs.  Helen  Avery  Robinson,  of 
Anchorage,  Kentucky,  and  communicated  by 
her,  with  a  corroborativ^e  letter  from  her  son, 
to  Professor  Hyslop: 

"  My  son  and  a  friend  had  driven  across  the 
country  to  dine  and  spend  the  evening  with 
friends.  The  rest  of  the  household  had  retired 
for  the  night.  I  was  awakened  by  the  telephone, 
and  looked  at  the  clock,  finding  it  eleven-thirty. 
I  knew  my  son  would  soon  be  in,  and  thought 
of  a  window  down-stairs,  which  I  felt  might  not 
have  been  locked,  and  I  determined  to  remain 
awake  and  ask  my  son  to  make  sure  it  was  secure. 

"As  I  lay  waiting  and  listening  for  him,  I 
suddenly  saw  their  vehicle,  a  light  break-cart, 
turn  over,  my  son  jump  out,  land  on  his  feet,  run 
to  the  struggling  horse's  head,  his  friend  hold  on 
to  the  lines,  and  in  a  moment  it  was  gone  and 
I  knew  all  was  right  and  felt  no  disturbance. 

"  I  met  my  son  as  he  came  in,  and  spoke  of  the 
[1131 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

window.  He  said:  'We  tipped  over,  mother.' 
I  replied:  'Yes,  I  know  it.  I  saw  you.'  And 
described  what  I  saw,  which  he  said  was  just  as  it 
happened.  I  did  not  see  them  before  they  started 
out,  as  his  friend  called  for  him  with  his  horse 
and  vehicle,  so  I  did  not  know  in  what  style  they 
went." 

It  should  be  added  that  the  spot  where  the 
cart  was  overturned  was  so  far  from  the  Robin- 
son house  that,  even  had  it  been  broad  daylight, 
Mrs.  Robinson  could  not  possibly  have  witnessed 
the  accident  from  her  bedroom. 

In  the  same  way  a  young  man  named  Frederic 
Marks,  in  Wallingford,  Connecticut,  clairvoy- 
antly  —  and  most  dramatically  —  beheld  an  ac- 
cident occurring  to  his  brother,  Charles,  on 
Oneida  Lake,  in  New  York  State,  hundreds  of 
miles  from  Wallingford.^  Charles  Marks  and 
a  friend,  Arthur  Bloom,  had  gone  for  a  sail  on  the 
lake,  were  caught  in  a  storm,  and  almost  wrecked 
through  the  giving  way  of  their  boom.     Charles, 

1  The  evidence  relating  to  this  case  is  published  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  vii,  pp.  359- 
364. 

[114] 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND   CRYSTAL-GAZING 

however,  springing  into  the  bow,  managed  to 
make  the  boom  fast  again,  and  they  succeeded 
in   running   to   shore. 

It  was  when  their  danger  was  greatest  that 
they  were  seen  clairvoyantly  by  Frederic  Marks, 
who,  it  being  a  rainy  afternoon  in  WalHngford, 
was  lounging  in  his  room. 

"  I  do  not  think  I  fell  asleep,"  he  testifies, 
"  nor  did  I  seem  fully  awake.  But  all  at  once  I 
seemed  to  be  facing  a  severe  storm  of  wind  and 
rain.  As  I  looked  into  the  storm  a  small  boat 
with  a  sail  came,  driven  helplessly  along  through 
a  seething,  boiling  mass  of  water.  Two  young 
men  were  in  it,  one  trying  to  steer  and  control 
the  boat,  the  other  apparently  trying  to  dip  out 
water  and  work  on  the  sail. 

"  One  of  the  two,  in  a  moment  of  greatest 
peril,  tried  to  tear  down  the  sail  from  its  mast. 
The  face  of  my  brother  came  clearly  into  view, 
with  an  expression  on  it  that  remains  with  me 
now.  The  boat  righted  and  sped  on.  I  saw  a 
low  shore  that  it  was  driving  toward.  The  boat 
grew  fainter  as  it  neared  the  shore,  and  con- 
sciousness came  back  to  me,  and,  whatever  it 
[115] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

was,  whether  a  dream  or  a  vision,  passed 
away." 

Fortunately,  young  Marks  did  not  keep  his 
singular  experience  to  himself,  but  hastened 
down-stairs  and  told  his  employer  —  a  Mr. 
Bristol,  with  whom  he  was  living  —  of  what 
he  had  seen.  He  was  laughed  at,  of  course,  and 
assured  that  it  was  "  only  a  dream."  But  three 
or  four  days  afterward  a  letter  arrived  from 
Charles  Marks,  bringing  unexpected  verification 
of  his  brother's  story. 

Even  more  detailed,  in  point  of  clairvoyant 
perception  of  a  distant  scene,  is  the  strange  dream 
of  a  physician.  Doctor  C.  Golinski,  of  Kremen- 
tchug,  Russia.  It  was  Doctor  Golinski's  custom 
to  take  a  nap  during  the  day,  and  one  afternoon 
he  lay  down  on  a  sofa  as  usual,  about  half-past 
three.    Wlu'le  asleep,  he  says:  ^ 

"  I  dreamed  that  the  doorbell  rang,  and  that 
I  had  the  usual  rather  disagreeable  sensation 
that  I  must  get  up  and  go  to  some  sick  person. 
Then   I   found   myself  transported   directly  into 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  vii, 
pp.  39-41. 

[116] 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND  CRYSTAL-GAZING 

a  little  room  with  dark  hangings.  To  the  right 
of  the  door  leading  into  the  room  is  a  chest  of 
drawers,  and  on  this  I  see  a  little  paraffin  lamp 
of  a  special  pattern.  To  the  left  of  the  door  I 
see  a  bed,  on  which  lies  a  woman  suffering  from 
severe  hemorrhage.  I  do  not  know  how  I  come 
to  know  that  she  has  a  hemorrhage,  but  I  know 
it.  I  examine  her,  but  rather  to  satisfy  my  con- 
science than  for  any  other  reason,  as  I  know 
beforehand  how  things  are,  although  no  one 
speaks  to  me.  Afterward  I  dream  vaguely  of 
medical  assistance  which  I  give,  and  then  I 
awake." 

It  was  then  half-past  four.  About  ten  minutes 
later  the  doorbell  rang,  and  Doctor  Golinskiwas 
summoned  to  a  patient.  His  surprise  may  be 
imagined  when  he  found  that  he  was  ushered 
into  the  identical  room  of  his  dream.  So  aston- 
ished was  he  that  he  immediately  approached 
the  bed  on  which  his  patient  was  lying,  and  said 
to  her: 

"  You  are  suffering  from  a  hemorrhage." 
"  Yes,"  was  her  reply,  in  a  tone  of  great  aston- 
ishment.   "  But  how  do  you  know  it?  " 
[117] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

She  then  told  him,  in  answer  to  his  questions, 
that  the  hemorrhage  had  set  in  about  one  o'clock, 
but  had  not  been  severe  enough  to  alarm  her 
until  between  three  and  four;  and  that  it  was  not 
until  nearly  half-past  four  that  she  had  decided 
to  send  for  him. 

Nearly  every  instance  of  spontaneous  clair- 
voyance that  is  sufficiently  authenticated  to 
compel  credence,  resembles  these  cases,  and  the 
similarity  between  them  and  cases  of  ordinary 
telepathic  hallucination,  as  described  in  the 
chapter  on  telepathy,  is  too  striking,  it  seems  to 
me,  to  leave  any  doubt  regarding  their  true 
nature.  The  only  points  of  difference  are  that 
there  is  a  greater  amount  of  detail  in  clairvoyant 
visions,  and  that  the  percipient  often  experiences 
a  sensation  of  being  actually  present  at  the  scene 
beheld.  But  this  latter  fact  is  easily  compre- 
hensible when  we  remember  that  the  same  sen- 
sation of  "  otherplaceness  "  is  often  experienced 
in  dreams  that  have  no  clairvoyant  significance, 
and  experienced  with  an  equal  feeling  of  reality, 
dissipated  only  when  the  dreamer  awakes.  As 
to  the  greater  amount  of  detail,  it  is  only  neces- 
[1181 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND  CRYSTAL-GAZING 

sary  to  assume  that  in  clairvoyant  cases  the 
telepathic  action  is  intensified  by  some  favoring 
condition  in  the  percipient's  mind,  just  as  some 
non-clairvoyant  dreams  are  more  detailed  and 
vivid   than   others. 

Besides  which,  the  telepathic  basis  of  clairvoy- 
ance has  been  experimentally  demonstrated.  One 
of  the  investigators  for  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  Mr.  G.  A.  Smith,  once  hypnotized 
a  lady  and  requested  her  to  "  look  into  "  the 
business  office  of  a  friend  of  his  and  tell  him  what 
she  saw  there.  Much  to  his  surprise  she  im- 
mediately began  to  describe  the  office  with  great 
exactness,  although  he  was  positive  she  had 
never  visited  it. 

It  then  occurred  to  him  that  possibly  she  was 
acquiring  her  knowledge  of  it  by  telepathy  from 
his  own  mind,  and  to  test  this  theory  he  thought 
of  an  imaginary  umbrella,  which  he  pictured  to 
himself  as  lying  open  on  his  friend's  writing  table. 
In  a  minute  or  so,  the  clairvoyant  uttered  a  cry 
of  astonishment,   and  exclaimed: 

"Why,    how    strange!      There's    a    large    um- 
brella open  on  the  table!  " 
[119] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Usually,  however,  experiments  like  this  fail, 
the  entranced  clairvoyant  being  able  to  discrim- 
inate between  the  thoughts  which  correspond  to 
reality  and  those  which  are  wholly  imaginary. 
But  that  the  process  involved  in  clairvoyance  is 
unquestionably  telepathic  has  been  otherwise 
proved  by  the  fact  that  when  conditions  are 
imposed  on  clairvoyants  absolutely  excluding 
the  possibility  of  thought  transference  from  one 
mind  to  another,  they  are  conspicuously  unsuc- 
cessful in  their  efforts  to  obtain  results.  If,  as 
often  happens,  they  are  able  to  describe  distant 
places  which  they  have  never  seen  but  with 
which  other  persons  are  necessarily  familiar,  they 
are  nevertheless  unable  to  state,  for  example,  the 
number  on  a  bank  note,  chosen  at  random  from 
among  others  and  placed  in  their  hands  in  a 
sealed  box  without  anybody  previously  ascer- 
taining just  what  the  number  is. 

Such  a  test,  if  successful,  would  be  decisive 
proof  of  independent  clairvoyance;  but  I  have 
yet  to  learn  of  any  clairvoyant  who  has  been 
able  to  meet  it,  although  the  effort  has  been  fre- 
quently made.  It  should  be  pointed  out  that, 
[1201 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND  CRYSTAL-GAZING 

in  order  to  give  it  evidential  value,  there  must 
not  be  the  slightest  possibility  of  any  one  even 
glancing  at  the  bank  note  before  it  is  put  into  the 
sealed  box;  for,  as  has  already  been  said,  it  is 
now  known  that  the  eye  is  far  keener  than  we 
usually  realize,  and  that  the  merest  glance  may 
often  put  us  in  possession  of  facts  which,  sinking 
into  the  memory,  may  afterward  emerge  to  as- 
tonish and  perhaps  mystify  us.  Once  they  were 
lodged  in  the  mind,  a  clairvoyant  could,  of  course, 
obtain  these  facts  from  us  telepathically,  and 
thus  achieve  a  seeming  success  even  in  the  bank 
note  or  some  similar  test. 

Indeed,  this  power  of  subconscious  perception 
is  of  itself  sufficient  to  explain  many  undoubtedly 
genuine  instances  of  clairvoyance.  There  is  ob- 
viously no  need  to  go  beyond  it  to  account  for 
such  a  clairvoyant  dream  as  the  following,  re- 
ported by  a  lady  who  has  declined  to  allow  her 
name  to  be  published: 

"  A  number  of  years  ago  I  was  invited  to  visit 

a  friend  who  lived  at  a  large  and  beautiful  country 

seat  on  the  Hudson.     Shortly  after  my  arrival  I 

started,  with  a  number  of  other  guests,  to  make 

[1211 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

a  tour  of  the  very  extensive  grounds.  We  walked 
for  an  hour  or  more,  and  thoroughly  explored  the 
place.  Upon  my  return  to  the  house,  I  discovered 
that  I  had  lost  a  gold  cuff-stud,  which  I  valued 
for  association's  sake.  I  merely  remembered  that 
I  wore  it  when  we  started  out,  and  did  not  think 
of  or  notice  it  again  until  my  return,  when  it  was 
missing.  As  it  was  quite  dark,  it  seemed  useless 
to  search  for  it,  especially  as  it  was  the  season 
of  autumn  and  the  ground  was  covered  with 
dead   leaves. 

"  That  night  I  dreamed  that  I  saw  a  withered 
grapevine  clinging  to  a  wall,  and  with  a  pile  of 
dead  leaves  at  its  base.  Underneath  the  leaves, 
in  my  dream,  I  distinctly  saw  my  stud  gleaming. 
The  following  morning  I  asked  the  friends  with 
whom  I  had  been  walking  the  previous  afternoon 
if  they  remembered  seeing  any  such  wall  and 
vine,  as  I  did  not.  They  replied  that  they  could 
not  recall  anything  answering  the  description. 
I  did  not  tell  them  why  I  asked,  as  I  felt  some- 
what ashamed  of  the  dream;  but,  during  the 
morning,  I  made  some  excuse  to  go  out  on  the 
grounds  alone.  I  walked  hither  and  thither,  and, 
[122] 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND   CRYSTAL-GAZING 

after  a  long  time,  I  suddenly  came  upon  the 
wall  and  vine  exactly  as  they  looked  in  my 
dream. 

"  I  had  not  the  slightest  recollection  of  seeing 
them,  or  passing  by  them  on  the  previous  day. 
The  dead  leaves  at  the  base  were  lying  heaped 
up,  as  in  my  dream.  I  approached  cautiously, 
feeling  rather  uncomfortable  and  decidedly  silly, 
and  pushed  them  aside.  I  had  scattered  a  large 
number  of  the  leaves  when  a  gleam  of  gold  struck 
my  eye,  and  there  lay  the  stud,  exactly  as  in  my 
dream."  ^ 

Akin  to  this  is  an  exceptionally  interesting  case 
that  was  reported  to  me  by  a  young  lady  at- 
tending college  at  Greeley,  Colorado.  Her  father, 
it  appears,  had  sent  her  a  check,  which  for  a  day 
or  two  she  delayed  cashing.  Then,  being  without 
money,  she  looked  for  it  in  the  place  where  she 
supposed  she  had  put  it,  but,  to  her  dismay,  dis- 
covered that  it  was  not  there.  A  thorough  search 
of  her  room  failed  to  bring  it  to  light,  and,  as  it 
was    not  a  personal    check  of  her  father's,  she 

^  Proceedings  of  the  American  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
vol.  i,  pp.  361-362. 

[1231 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

was  greatly  worried,  thinking  that  it  might  be 
impossible  to  duplicate  it. 

A  couple  of  nights  later  she  had  a  curious 
dream  in  which  she  saw  herself  standing  in  front 
of  a  bookcase  in  the  college  library.  On  a  certain 
shelf  were  five  books,  one  bound  in  blue,  another 
in  yellow,  and  between  them  three  with  a  white 
binding.  She  took  down  one  of  the  white-covered 
volumes,  opened  it  idly,  and  in  the  middle  of  the 
book  found  her  check. 

Next  morning  she  awoke  with  no  memory  of 
the  dream,  nor  did  she  recall  it  when,  later  in 
the  day,  she  visited  the  college  library  and  came 
across  this  identical  placing  of  books.  It  recurred 
to  her  only  when  she  glanced  into  one  of  the 
white-covered  volumes.  Feeling  rather  "  fool- 
ish," and  also  not  a  little  apprehensive,  she  took 
down  a  second  volume  of  the  same  set,  opened 
it,  and  there,  sure  enough,  was  the  missing  check! 

She  then  remembered  that  the  book  in  which 
it  was  found  had  been  in  her  room  for  some  hours 
the  day  she  received  her  father's  letter.  What 
happened,  I  have  no  doubt,  was  that  she  absent- 
mindedly  slipped  the  check  into  the  book,  and 
[124] 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND  CRYSTAL-GAZING 

then,  so  far  as  her  upper  consciousness  was 
concerned,  forgot  all  about  it.  But  subcon- 
sciously she  would  remember  and  subconsciously 
would  be  reminded  of  it  the  day  before  the  dream 
when,  in  the  college  library,  she  happened  to  see 
the  same  book  again,  without,  perchance,  any 
conscious  knowledge  of  seeing  it.  That  night, 
in  sleep,  her  mind  busied  itself  once  more  with 
the  problem  of  the  missing  check,  this  time  to 
good  purpose. 

Very  similar  is  a  dream  for  which  I  am  in- 
debted to  Mr.  Andrew  Lang,  who  got  it  from 
the  dreamer,  an  English  lawyer.  This  gentle- 
man had  sat  up  late  to  write  letters,  and  about 
half-past  twelve  went  out  to  post  them.  On  his 
return  he  missed  a  check  for  a  large  amount  re- 
ceived by  him  during  the  day.  He  searched 
everywhere  in  vain,  went  to  bed,  and  soon  fell 
asleep.  Then  he  dreamed  that  he  saw  the  check 
curled  around  an  area  raiHng  not  far  from  his 
own  door.  W^aking,  he  was  so  impressed  that, 
although  it  was  not  yet  daylight,  he  got  up, 
dressed,  walked  out  of  the  house,  and  found  the 
check  at  the  spot  indicated  by  his  dream. 
[125] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

In  another  case  a  Californian,  visiting  in 
Sullivan  County,  New  York,  lost  a  gold  ring 
given  him  by  his  sister.  That  night  he  dreamed 
he  saw  it  lying  in  the  sand  beneath  a  swing,  in 
which  he  had  been  sitting  in  the  afternoon.  It 
was  actually  there,  as  he  ascertained  by  looking 
*  day.  Similarly,  a  clerk  in  a  customs  house 
..v.overed  a  valuable  document,  the  loss  of  which 
would  have  cost  him  his  position.  And  the  wife 
of  a  clergyman,  the  Reverend  W.  F.  Brand,  of 
Emmorton,  Maryland,  had  revealed  to  her  in  a 
dream  the  hiding-place  of  a  sum  of  money  which, 
six  months  before,  she  had  put  away  at  her  hus- 
band's request,  but  had  afterward  accidentally 
slipped  into  a  bundle  of  shawls. 

Decidedly,  we  not  only  see  more  than  we  are 
aware  of,  but  we  also  remember  more  and  for  a 
far  longer  time  than  is  usually  supposed. 

Which  brings  me  to  another  point  of  great 
importance  to  the  student  of  clairvoyance  and 
other  psychical  problems,  and  also,  as  will  appear 
in  a  later  chapter,  of  tremendous  significance  in 
affairs  of  everyday  life.  The  tenacity  of  mem- 
ory is  such  that  nothing  one  sees  is  really  for- 
[  126  ] 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND   CRYSTAL-GAZING 

gotten.  It  merely  slips,  as  it  were,  into  some 
subterranean  region  of  the  mind,  whence,  days 
and  months  and  even  years  afterward,  it  may  be 
recalled.  Of  this  we  have  incontrovertible  proof 
in  the  phenomena  of  crystal-gazing,  a  species 
of  clairvoyance  in  which,  by  gazing  into  a  crystal 
or  a  glass  of  water,  or  any  small  body  with 
reflecting  surface,  it  is  sometimes  possible  ,^^., 
perceive  hallucinatory  pictures  of  people  and 
places  situated  far  beyond  the  gazer's  normal 
field  of  vision,  and  occasionally  depicting  events 
occurring  at  the  moment  they  are  seen  in  the 
crystal. 

Occultists,  as  will  readily  be  understood,  set 
great  store  by  crystal-gazing,  finding  in  it  positive 
proof  of  spirit  action.  But  again  it  is  unnecessary, 
even  in  the  most  extraordinary  instances  re- 
corded, to  adopt  any  other  explanatory  hypothe- 
sis than  that  of  telepathy,  and  in  most  cases  the 
source  of  the  visions  can  be  traced  directly  to 
latent  memories  in  the  gazer's  own  mind. 

This    has    been    beautifully    demonstrated    by 
Miss  Goodrich-Freer,  a  lady  who  developed  the 
faculty  of   crystal-gazing  for  the  express  purpose 
[127] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

of  studying  and  analyzing  its  hallucinatory  im- 
ages. Not  everybody,  I  should  perhaps  say, 
can  attain  the  degree  of  mental  passivity  requi- 
site to  seeing  pictures  in  the  crystal,  but  fortu- 
nately for  the  cause  of  scientific  progress.  Miss 
Goodrich-Freer  was  eminently  successful. 

With  the  aid  of  her  crystal,  Miss  Goodrich- 
Freer  has  frequently  recalled  dates  and  other 
information  which  she  had  forgotten  and  wished 
to  remember;  and  on  at  least  one  occasion,  under 
exceptionally  peculiar  circumstances,  she  was 
enabled  to  supply  an  address  which  was  of  no 
special  interest  to  her,  but  was  of  special  interest 
to  a  relative.  Here  is  her  own  account  of  the 
episode:  ^ 

"  A  relative  of  mine  was  talking  one  day  with  a 
caller  in  the  room  next  to  that  in  which  I  was 
reading,  and  beyond  wishing  that  they  were 
farther,  I  paid  no  attention  to  anything  they  said, 
and  certainly  could  have  declared  positively  that 
I  did  not  hear  a  word.  Next  day  I  saw  in  a 
pohshed    mahogany    table,    '  1,    Earl's    Square, 

1  In  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
vol.  viii,  p.  489. 

[128] 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND   CRYSTAL-GAZING 

Netting  Hill,'  I  had  no  idea  whose  this  address 
might  be;  but  some  days  later  my  relative  re- 
marked: '  H.  (the  caller  aforesaid)  has  left  Ken- 
sington. She  told  me  her  address  the  other  day, 
but  I  did  not  write  it  down.'  It  occurred  to  me 
to  ask:  '  Was  it,  1,  Earl's  Square?  '  And  this 
turned  out  to  be  the  case." 

On  another  occasion,  she  says  in  the  long  report 
she  has  made  on  the  subject  to  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research,  she  saw  in  the  crystal  the 
picture  of  a  dark-colored  wall,  covered  with 
white  jessamine.  She  had  been  taking  a  walk 
that  morning  through  the  streets  of  London,  and 
she  thought  that  perhaps  the  crystal  image  rep- 
resented some  spot  she  had  passed  in  her  walk, 
though  this  seemed  unlikely,  both  because  she 
could  not  remember  having  seen  such  a  wall, 
and  because  jessamine-covered  walls  are  by  no 
means  common  in  London  streets.  But  the  next 
day  she  retraced  her  steps,  and  presently  came 
to  the  identical  scene  of  her  crystal  vision,  the 
sight  of  it  bringing  the  immediate  recollection 
that  at  the  moment  she  passed  this  spot  the  day 
before  she  had  been  engaged  in  absorbing  con- 
[129] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

versation  with  a  friend,  and  her  attention  was 
wholly  preoccupied.  The  fact,  however,  of  its 
reproduction  in  the  crystal  made  it  evident  that, 
by  the  subtle  power  of  subconscious  perception 
she  had  obtained  a  perfect  mental  image  of  it. 

Similarly,  while  busied  one  day  with  household 
accounts,  she  opened  the  drawer  of  her  writing 
table  to  get  her  bank-book,  and  her  hand  came  in 
contact  with  her  crystal.  Welcoming  the  sug- 
gestion of  a  change  in  occupation,  she  took  it  up, 
and  began  to  gaze  into  it.    But,  she  says: 

"  Figures  were  still  uppermost,  and  the  crystal 
had  nothing  more  attractive  to  show  me  than 
the  combination  seven-six-nine-four.  Dismissing 
this  as  probably  the  number  of  the  cab  I  had 
driven  in  that  day,  or  a  chance  grouping  of  the 
figures  with  which  I  had  been  occupied,  I  laid 
aside  the  crystal  and  took  up  my  bank-book, 
which  I  certainly  had  not  seen  for  some  months, 
and  found,  to  my  surprise,  that  the  number  on 
the  cover  was  7604.  Had  I  wished  to  recall  the 
figures,  I  should,  without  doubt,  have  failed, 
and  could  not  even  have  guessed  at  the  number 
of  digits  or  the  value  of  the  first  figure." 
[130] 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND  CRYSTAL-GAZING 

It  is  not  surprising  to  find  Miss  Goodrich-Freer 
adding: 

"  Certainly,  one  result  of  crystal-gazing  is  to 
teach  one  to  abjure  the  verb  '  to  forget '  in  all  its 
moods  and  tenses." 

Still  it  is  possible  that  in  the  act  of  opening  the 
drawer,  she  caught  a  glimpse,  without  realizing 
it,  of  the  number  on  the  bank-book.  There  are 
many  cases,  though,  in  her  experience  and  in  the 
experience  of  other  crystal-gazers,  proving  abso- 
lutely that  latent  memories  dating  back  even  to 
childhood  may  be  thus  recalled;  and  similar  evi- 
dence is  forthcoming  from  hallucinations  ex- 
perienced without  the  aid  of  a  crystal.  A  "  psy- 
chic "  with  whom  Professor  Hyslop  has  often 
experimented,  and  whose  home  is  in  Brooklyn, 
used  to  have  a  recurrent  visual  hallucination  of 
a  bright  blue  sky  overhead,  a  garden  with  a  high 
fence,  and  a  peculiar  chain  pump  in  the  garden, 
situated  at  the  back  of  the  house. 

Some  time  later  she  left  Brooklyn  to  pay  a 

visit  to  her  girlhood  home  in  Ohio,  where  she  met 

a  lady  who  invited  her  to  tea.     After  tea  they 

went  into  the  garden,  and  there,  to  her  amaze- 

[131] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

ment,  she  saw  the  high  fence  and  the  chain  pump 
of  her  hallucination.  She  felt  quite  sure  that 
she  had  never  been  in  the  place  until  that  day, 
and  it  looked  very  much  as  though  she  had  been 
given  a  supernatural  revelation  of  it.  But  the 
mystery  was  solved  on  her  return  to  Brooklyn. 

Telling  her  mother  of  her  odd  experience,  she 
asked  if  she  thought  there  was  any  possibility 
she  could  have  visited  that  particular  house  and 
garden  in  her  younger  days. 

"  Why,  yes,"  was  the  unexpected  reply.  "  When 
you  were  a  httle  girl,  two  or  three  years  old,  I 
often  took  you  to  it." 

But  not  all  crystal  visions  may  thus  be  attrib- 
uted to  the  emergence  of  subconscious  percep- 
tions or  the  recrudescence  of  forgotten  memories. 
There  are  some  in  which  the  telepathic  action  of 
mind  upon  mind  is  clearly  manifested,  and  in 
which  the  crystal  seems  to  serve  as  a  mechanical 
aid,  enabling  the  percipient  to  become  aware 
of  the  telepathic  message.  In  no  case,  how- 
ever, as  I  have  already  said,  is  it  necessary  to  go 
beyond  telepathy  to  find  an  adequate  explana- 
tion. 

[132] 


CLAIRVOYANCE  AND  CRYSTAL-GAZING 

The  same  applies  to  the  still  more  singular 
phenomena  to  which  we  shall  turn  next  —  the 
phenomena  of  automatic  speaking  and  writing, 
regarded  by  many  as  affording  incontrovertible 
proof  of  the  vahdity  of  the  spiritistic  belief  that 
the  dead  can  and  do  communicate  with  the 
living. 


138] 


CHAPTER  IV 

AUTOMATIC   SPEAKING   AND    WRITING 

THERE  is  a  widespread  belief  that  spiritism 
—  or  spiritualism,  as  it  is  more  commonly 
known  —  is  on  the  wane,  and  will  soon  be  rele- 
gated to  the  limbo  of  extinct  religions.  But  the 
facts  indicate  otherwise.  At  a  conservative  es- 
timate, there  are  to-day,  in  the  United  States 
alone,  no  fewer  than  75,000  avowed  spiritists,  in 
more  or  less  regular  attendance  at  the  meetings 
of  nearly  450  spiritist  societies,  and  possessing 
church  property  valued  at  $2,000,000;  and  more 
than  1,500,000  believers  who,  without  openly 
identifying  themselves  with  any  society,  accept 
the  ministrations  of  1,500  public  and  10,000 
private  mediums.  Spiritism  has  even  "  followed 
the  flag "  into  the  Philippines,  seances  being 
held  at  Manila  and  elsewhere. 

This  certainly  is  a  remarkable  showing   for  a 
moribund    religion,    and    what    makes    it    more 
[1341 


AUTOMATIC  SPEAKING   AND  WRITING 

remarkable  is  the  fact  that  spiritism,  from  its 
very  beginnings  sixty  years  ago,  has  been  per- 
meated with  fraud.  Its  founders,  the  Fox  sisters, 
daughters  of  a  New  York  farmer,  were  naughty 
little  girls  who  amused  themselves  by  making 
strange  noises  which  superstitious  persons  inter- 
preted as  communications  from  the  dead.  This 
proving  profitable  to  the  sisters  Fox,  the  business 
of  producing  "  spirit  knockings "  spread  from 
town  to  town,  and  forthwith  modern  spiritism 
was  born.  Since  then  its  record  has  been  a  long 
and  dismal  catalogue  of  swindles  exposed  by 
skeptical  investigators.  Scarcely  a  month  passes 
without  a  story  of  some  sensational  expose;  yet, 
disproving  all  predictions  to  the  contrary,  spirit- 
ism continues  to  expand,  constantly  welcoming 
new  recruits  to  its  ranks. 

Several  reasons  account  for  its  amazing  prog- 
ress under  what  would  appear  to  be  the  most 
adverse  conditions  imaginable.  One  is  the  innate 
tendency  of  many  people  to  dabble  with  the 
occult  and  mysterious.  Another  is  the  appeal 
spiritism  makes  to  the  most  sacred  emotions 
of  humanity.  Its  central  doctrine  is  that  it  is 
[135] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

possible  for  the  dead  to  communicate  with  their 
surviving  relatives  and  friends,  through  the 
mediumship  of  "  psychics  "  gifted  with  extraor- 
dinary powers.  Thus  the  hope  is  raised  that 
messages  of  good  cheer  may  be  received  from 
loved  ones  who  have  passed  to  the  great  Beyond 
—  that  their  voices  may  be  heard,  their  faces 
seen,  and  their  hands  clasped  by  those  from 
whom  death  has  separated  them. 

To  the  spiritistic  seance,  consequently,  go 
grief -stricken  men  and  women,  skeptical  perhaps, 
but  fervently  hopeful  that  their  skepticism  will 
be  overcome.  To  borrow  Professor  James's  stri- 
king phrase,  they  are  already  deeply  imbued  with 
"  the  will  to  believe,"  and  are  in  no  mood  for 
close  observation  of  what  happens  in  the  seance 
room.  Usually,  to  speak  plainly,  they  are  utterly 
lacking  in  the  qualities  that  make  a  scientific 
investigator.  The  sense  of  their  loss  is  all-ab- 
sorbing, and  in  this  state  of  mind  it  is  easy  for 
any  trickster  who  poses  as  a  medium  to  delude 
them  into  fancying  that  they  have  actually  been 
in  touch  with  the  dead. 

But  the  main  reason  why  spiritism  has  sur- 
[136] 


AUTOMATIC   SPEAKING   AND   WRITING 

vived  repeated  exposes,  and  persists  as  a  force 
to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  rehgious  life  of  to-day, 
is  the  fact  that  it  is  by  no  means  altogether 
synonymous  with  swindling.  There  are  certain 
phenomena,  particularly  so-called  automatic 
speaking  and  writing,  which  it  is  out  of  the 
question  to  attribute  invariably  to  trickery  and 
deceit.  While  one  need  have  no  hesitation  in 
dismissing  as  fraudulent  ^  all  "  physical  "  me- 
diums —  that  is  to  say,  mediums  whose  stock  in 
trade  is  the  production  of  such  phenomena  as 
the  "  materialization  "  of  spirit  forms  and  faces, 
the  levitation  and  flinging  about  of  furniture,  and 
the  striking  of  the  "  sitters  "  by  unseen  hands 
—  the  case  of  the  automatists,  or  "  psychical  " 
mediums,  is  decidedly  different. 

These  are  mediums  who,  after  passing  into  a 
peculiar  condition  of  trance,  and  occasionally 
while  seemingly  in  their  usual  waking  state,  ap- 
pear to  be  controlled  by  some  outside  intelligence, 
and,  when  so  controlled,  utter  or  write  informa- 


'  Of  course,  strictly  speaking,  the  term  "  fraudulent  "  should 
not  be  applied  to  those  mediums  who  are  the  \ictims  of  a  peculiar 
form  of  hysteria.    This  is  discussed  in  detail  in  the  next  chapter. 

[137] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

tion  which  it  is  hard,  if  not  impossible,  to  beheve 
they  could  have  obtained  by  any  ordinary  means. 
To  be  sure,  there  is  a  host  of  spurious  automa- 
tists,  against  whom  one  cannot  be  too  watchfully 
on  guard.  Some  of  these  are  out-and-out  cheats, 
as  brazen  as  the  most  rascally  materializers. 
Some  depend  for  their  success  on  guessing  and  on 
inferences  shrewdly  drawn  from  hints  uncon- 
sciously dropped  by  their  patrons.  Quite  a 
number,  however,  undoubtedly  seem  to  exercise 
a  gift  not  possessed  —  or,  at  all  events,  not 
utilized  —  by  everyday  men  and  women. 

One  Sunday  evening,  in  the  late  nineties,  I 
visited  the  spiritist  church  on  Bedford  Avenue, 
Brooklyn,  of  which  the  late  Ira  Moore  Corliss 
was  then  pastor.  In  his  day  Mr.  Corliss  was 
probably  the  most  prominent  medium  in  Brook- 
lyn, a  city  where  spiritism  has  always  flourished. 
He  was  an  obviously  religious-minded  man,  and 
one  who  sincerely  believed  that  it  was  his  mission 
to  act  as  an  intermediary  between  this  world  and 
the  next.  That  evening  the  usual  order  of  services 
in  spiritist  churches  was  followed  —  a  prayer, 
some  hymn  singing,  a  sermon,  or  "  inspirational 
[138] 


AUTOMATIC   SPEAKING   AND  WRITING 

discourse,"  and,  lastly,  the  giving  of  "  test  mes- 
sages," in  which  the  medium  passed  rapidly 
up  and  down  the  aisles,  pausing  here  and  there 
to  deliver  oral  communications  alleged  to  come 
from  the  world  of  spirits. 

Seated  next  to  me  was  an  elderly  gentleman 
of  dignified  appearance,  who  watched  the  pro- 
ceedings with  a  quiet  smile  of  contempt.  It  was 
evident  that  this  was  the  first  time  he  had  ever 
seen  anything  of  the  kind,  and  that  he  was  both 
amused  and  disgusted.  Suddenly  Mr.  Corliss, 
halting  directly  in  front  of  him,  said,  in  the  quick, 
nervous  way  common  to  him  when  under  "  spirit 
control  ": 

"  I  have  a  message  for  you,  sir." 

"  For  me?  "  repeated  the  elderly  gentleman, 
incredulously. 

"  Yes,  sir,  for  you.  There  is  a  spirit  here  that 
wants  to  thank  you  for  your  kindly  thought  of 
him  to-day.  It  is  the  spirit  of  a  rather  tall  man, 
heavily  built,  clean-shaven,  with  bright,  tender 
eyes.    He  says  his  name  is  Henry  Ward  Beecher." 

The  smile  faded   from   the   other's  face.     He 
bent  forward,  listening  intently. 
[139] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

"  Go  on,"  he  said. 

"  This  spirit,"  continued  the  medium,  "  says 
that  he  is  glad  to  know  you  have  not  forgotten 
him.  He  says  that  he  was  with  you  this  after- 
noon, when  you  went  to  the  cemetery  and  took 
this  flower  from  his  grave." 

With  a  dramatic  gesture  Mr.  CorHss  drew 
from  the  lapel  of  his  astonished  auditor's  coat  a 
sprig  of  geranium,  and  held  it  up  so  that  all  could 
see  it. 

"  Am  I  not  right.f*  "  he  demanded. 

"  You  are.    Quite  right." 

Afterward  I  joined  the  elderly  gentleman  on 
the  sidewalk,  and  plied  him  with  questions.  I 
found   him  greatly  mystified. 

"  This  is  too  much  for  me,"  said  he.  "  I  am 
a  stranger  to  Brooklyn,  and  had  never  attended 
a  spiritualist  meeting  until  to-night.  I  only 
dropped  in  out  of  curiosity.  But  it  is  true  that 
this  afternoon  I  visited  the  cemetery  where 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  is  buried,  and  picked  this 
flower  from  near  his  grave,  as  a  memento  of  my 
visit.  Mr.  Beecher  was  a  very  good  friend  to 
me  in  my  younger  days.  How  the  medium  could 
[140] 


AUTOMATIC  SPEAKING   AND  WRITING 

know  these  facts  I  cannot  imagine.  I  had  told 
nobody  of  my  trip  to  the  cemetery,  and  I  am 
positive  that  no  one  saw  me  pick  the  flower." 

On  another  occasion  I  took  an  artist  friend  to 
the  first  seance  he  ever  attended.  The  medium 
was  a  psychic  of  the  Corhss  type,  an  automatist 
who  delivered  his  "  spirit  messages  "  by  word 
of  mouth.  There  were  perhaps  a  dozen  other 
sitters  present.  To  one  of  these,  a  thin,  gaunt, 
haggard-looking  young  woman,  the  entranced 
medium  announced  the  presence  of  "a  spirit 
named  Wagner."  It  was  none  other,  it  appeared, 
than  the  spirit  of  the  great  musician,  who  prom- 
ised he  would  aid  her  with  her  musical  composi- 
tions. A  smile  of  infinite  content  transformed 
her  careworn  features,  as  she  leaned  over  and 
whispered  to  my  friend: 

"  The  spirit  of  Liszt  is  already  helping  me. 
With  Wagner's  aid  I  cannot  fail." 

One  could  not  smile  in  face  of  the  story  of 
boundless  faith  and  pitiful  struggle  these  few 
words  told.  And  with  the  next  sitter  pathos  rose 
to  positive  tragedy. 

"  There  is  the  spirit  of  a  man  here,  whose 
\  141  1 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

name  is  Frederick,"  the  medium  declared,  "  and 
he  comes  to  you,  madam.     Take  my  hand." 

Slowly  a  woman,  dressed  in  deep  mourning, 
stood  up  and  extended  her  hand.  Intensity  was 
written  in  every  line  of  her  face. 

"  There  were  two  Fredericks,"  she  said.  "  Which 
is  it.?" 

"  It  is  the  Frederick  —  it  is  the  Frederick,  who, 
while  on  earth,  did  this." 

And  he  struck  her  sharply  on  the  arm.  Tears 
filled  her  eyes. 

"  I  understand,"  she  murmured,  "  I  under- 
stand.   What  does  he  say.?  " 

All  this  was  interesting,  but  not  convincing. 
For  aught  we  could  tell  to  the  contrary,  the 
medium  had  familiarized  himself  with  the  life 
stories  of  these  women,  who  doubtless  were 
regular  attendants  at  his  seances.  But  now  he 
passed  to  the  friend  by  my  side. 

"  A  message  for  you,  sir,"  said  he,  "  from  the 
spirit  of  a  military-looking  man.  Yes,  he  says 
that  when  he  was  in  this  sphere  he  was  a  com- 
mander of  soldiers,  a  general.  This  is  what  he 
looks  like." 

[1421 


AUTOMATIC   SPEAKING   AND   WRITING 

He  launched  into  a  long  description,  which  I 
could  see  was  making  a  profound  impression  on 
my  friend. 

*'  Has  he  anything  particular  to  say  to  me?  " 
he  asked. 

"  He  says  that  you  must  on  no  account  decline 
the  offer  that  has  been  made  to  you  to  go  West  — 
that  you  will  never  regret  going." 

Less  than  two  hours  earlier  my  companion 
had  told  me  of  a  commission  unexpectedly  ten- 
dered him,  involving  a  long  sojourn  in  California. 
At  the  medium's  words  he  turned  pale,  and 
glanced  around  as  though  half  expecting  to  see 
a  ghost  standing  behind  his  chair. 

When  the  seance  had  come  to  an  end,  and  we 
were  walking  home  together,  he  solemnly  assured 
me  that  the  medium  had  accurately  described  a 
dead  friend,  an  army  officer  of  the  rank  of  gen- 
eral, whose  advice,  had  he  been  alive,  he  would 
have  sought  with  regard  to  his  projected  journey 
to  California. 

Again,  there  is  an  interesting  case  reported 
from  New  England  by  the  Reverend  Willis  M. 
Cleaveland.  Among  Mr.  Cleaveland's  parish- 
[143] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

ioners  was  a  young  woman,  Miss  Edith  Wright, 
who  developed  mediumistic  abihties,  being  con- 
trolled at  times  by  what  purported  to  be  a  dis- 
carnate  spirit.  Dreading  notoriety.  Miss  Wright 
gave  very  few  seances,  and  then  only  to  her 
closest  friends  or  to  sitters  with  whom  her  friends 
were  well  acquainted,  and  in  whose  discretion 
they  could  place  reliance. 

One  of  these  was  Mr.  Cleaveland,  who,  being 
interested  in  psychical  research,  undertook  to 
obtain,  if  possible,  proof  of  the  identity  of  the 
supposed  communicating  spirit.  If  you  really 
are  a  spirit,  he  said  in  effect,  you  ought  to  be 
able  to  give  us  some  facts  about  yourself,  some- 
thing about  your  history  while  you  were  on 
earth,  with  data  that  will  enable  us  to  obtain 
confirmation  of  what  you  say.  The  "  control " 
readily  conceded  the  reasonableness  of  this,  and 
in  the  course  of  several  seances  made  twenty-six 
personal  statements,  of  which  the  most  signifi- 
cant were: 

That  her  name  was  Amelia  B.  Norton. 

That  she  had  been  the  daughter  of  an  orthodox 
clergyman,  of  the  "  water  type." 
[1441 


AUTOMATIC   SPEAKING  AND  WRITING 

That  she  had  Hved  near  the  Kennebec  River, 
in  the  State  of  Maine. 

That  when  writing  letters  it  had  been  her  cus- 
tom to  sign  herself  by  the  initials  N.  N.,  meaning 
Nellie  Norton. 

That  she  had  died  in  middle  life. 

That  when  quite  young  she  had  had  a  love 
affair  with  a  Mr.  L.  C.  Brown,  who  was  still 
living  and  engaged  in  business  in  Boston,  at  an 
address  which  the  "  spirit  "  gave. 

As  goes  without  saying,  Mr.  Cleaveland  at 
once  wrote  to  Mr.  Brown,  and  in  a  few  days 
received  a  reply  from  him,  in  which  he  said: 

"  I  was  out  in  the  town  of  Sharon  very  recently, 
and  called  on  an  elderly  gentleman  who  was  a 
manufacturer  there  when  I  resided  there  as  a  boy 
in  my  teens.  To  my  surprise,  as  we  were  reviving 
old  recollections  of  fifty  years  ago,  he  spoke  of  a 
Miss  Norton  that  he  said  I  was  sweet  on  at  that 
time. 

"  The  facts  of  the  case  are  that  Mary  B.  Nor- 
ton, who  always  signed  herself  Nellie  B.  Norton, 
came  there,  a  young  miss  about  my  age.  We 
were,  I  guess,  ardent  lovers,  but  in  the  course  of 
[145] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

two  years  I  left  the  town  and  she  did,  and  I 
knew  very  httle  of  her  for  a  few  years  after  that. 
I  think  it  was  about  five  years  later  that  on  my 
way  home  from  the  White  Mountains  I  stopped 
off  at  her  home  in  Maine,  which  was  beside  a 
large  river.  I  feel  sure  this  was  the  Kennebec 
River.  Her  father  was  an  orthodox  minister,  but 
I  do  not  understand  the  meaning  of  the  *  water 
type.'  I  think  some  two  years  later  she  was 
residing  in  Fairhaven  and  sent  me  some  papers 
that  contained  letters  written  by  Mary  B.  Norton, 
but  from  that  time  —  some  over  forty  years  — 
I  have  not  seen  her,  I  heard  that  she  died  some 
years  ago,  and  tliink  she  must  have  been  about 
fifty  years  of  age." 

Later  Mr.  Brown  wrote  again,  saying  that  on 
second  thought  he  was  not  certain  that  her  name 
might  not  have  been  Amelia  instead  of  Mary, 
as  he  had  always  known  her  "  only  as  Nellie  B."  ^ 

It  is  to  the  constant  occurrence  of  incidents 
like  these  that  the  vitality  of  spiritism  is  mainly 
due.     To   many   people   it   seems   impossible   to 

*  This  case  is  reported  in  detail  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
American  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  ii,  pp.  119-138. 

[  146  ] 


AUTOMATIC   SPEAKING   AND  WRITING 

account  for  such  detailed  and  abundantly  corrob- 
orated proofs  of  personal  identity  on  any  hypothe- 
sis short  of  actual  spirit  control.  Yet  in  the  last 
analysis,  when  viewed  in  the  sober  light  of  latter- 
day  scientific  knowledge  of  the  workings  of  the 
human  mind,  it  will  be  found  that  they  do  not 
afford  the  conclusive  demonstration  of  the  validity 
of  the  spiritistic  doctrine  which  on  the  surface 
they  appear  to  yield.  For  there  is  always  the 
possibility  —  amounting,  I  feel  warranted  in  say- 
ing, to  certainty  —  that  what  they  really  indicate 
is  not  communication  with  the  dead,  but  thought 
transference  between  living  minds. 

In  fact  the  telepathic  connection  between  the 
mind  of  the  medium  and  the  mind  of  the  sitter 
is  often  most  obvious.  Take  the  three  cases  just 
cited,  and  which  are  typical  of  mediumistic  com- 
munications. The  statements  made  by  the 
medium  Corliss  to  the  friend  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  were  statements  relating  to  an  incident 
fresh  in  the  latter's  memory,  and  therefore  easily 
obtainable  by  the  telepathic  process,  which, 
there  is  reason  to  believe,  is  exceptionally  at  the 
command  of  genuine  psychics.  Likewise,  my 
[147] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

artist  friend  was  much  occupied  mentally  with 
the  problems  involved  in  the  California  offer, 
and  was  doubtless  thinking  of  it,  consciously  or 
subconsciously,  at  the  time  the  medium  invoked 
the  "  spirit  "  of  the  army  officer  whose  advice 
my  friend  would  have  sought  had  that  officer 
still  been  in  the  flesh.  All  the  medium  had  to  do 
was  to  tap  telepathically  my  friend's  subcon- 
sciousness and  extract  from  it  every  detail  of  the 
*'  revelation  "  so  sensationally  made  to  him  in 
the  seance  room. 

Slightly  different,  however,  is  the  case  of  Miss 
Edith  Wright.  Here  the  facts  thought  to  ema- 
nate from  the  dead  Amelia  B.  Norton  were  facts 
concerning  which  Miss  Wright's  sitter,  the  Rev- 
erend Mr.  Cleaveland,  was  ignorant.  But  it  is 
most  significant  that,  continuing  his  researches, 
Mr.  Cleaveland  made  the  discovery  that  Miss 
Norton's  old  sweetheart,  Mr.  Brown,  had  had 
at  least  one  sitting  with  Miss  Wright.  Mr.  Brown 
denied  that  he  had  ever  said  anything  about 
Miss  Norton  in  Miss  Wright's  presence;  but  his 
memory  may  have  played  him  false,  and,  in  any 
event,  she  could  have  got  from  him  by  telepathy 
[148] 


AUTOMATIC   SPEAKING   AND  WRITING 

the  data  with  which  she  afterward  astonished 
both  him  and  Mr.  Cleaveland.  Let  me  remind 
the  reader  that  among  the  few  definitely  ascer- 
tained laws  of  telepathy  is  the  fact  that  it  is 
possible  for  telepathic  messages  to  lie  long  latent 
in  the  recipient's  mind  before  emerging  above 
the  threshold  of  consciousness. 

This  is  of  even  greater  significance  in  connec- 
tion with  the  rarer,  but  still  quite  numerous,  in- 
stances in  which  the  mediumistic  communica- 
tions offered  as  evidence  of  spirit  identity  refer 
to  incidents  not  known  by  the  medium  or  by  the 
sitter  or  by  any  previous  sitter.  These,  spiritists 
insist,  are  absolutely  inexplicable  on  the  tele- 
pathic basis.  I  can  make  their  position  clearer 
by  citing  an  illustrative  case  taken  from  the 
experience  of  that  greatest  of  automatists,  the 
New  England  medium,  Mrs.  Leonora  E.  Piper, 
whose  remarkable  mediumistic  faculty  was  first 
made  known  to  the  scientific  world  by  Professor 
James  thirty  years  ago,  and  who  has  since  been 
repeatedly  investigated  by  leading  members  of 
the  Society  for  Psychical  Research.  Detectives 
have  been  employed  to  dog  her  footsteps,  open 
[149] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

her  mail,  watch  her  every  move.  But  not  once 
have  they  detected  her  in  fraudulent  practices; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  she  has  given  such  con- 
vincing proof  of  the  genuineness  of  her  power 
that  some  of  the  most  skeptical  among  her  in- 
vestigators have  ended  by  accepting  at  face 
value  her  "  messages  from  the  dead." 

On  one  occasion,  while  she  was  being  investi- 
gated in  England  by  a  committee  of  experts, 
that  famous  EngHsh  psychical  researcher.  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge,  placed  in  her  hands,  w^hile  she 
was  entranced,  a  gold  watch  once  the  property 
of  an  uncle  of  his  who  had  died  some  twenty 
years  before.  It  was  now  owned  by  another 
uncle,  a  twin  brother  of  the  dead  man. 

"  I  was  told  almost  immediately,"  says  Sir 
Oliver,  "  that  it  had  belonged  to  one  of  my 
uncles  —  one  that  had  been  very  fond  of  Uncle 
Robert,  the  name  of  the  survivor  —  that  the 
watch  was  now  in  the  possession  of  this  same 
Uncle  Robert,  with  whom  its  late  owner  was 
anxious  to  communicate.  After  some  difficulty 
and  many  wrong  attempts,  Doctor  Phinuit  — 
a  '  spirit '  alleged  to  be  controlling  Mrs.  Piper 
[150] 


AUTOMATIC  SPEAKING   AND   WRITING 

—  caught  the  name  Jerry,  short  for  Jeremiah, 
and  said  emphatically,  as  if  impersonating  him: 
*  This  is  my  watch,  and  Robert  is  my  brother, 
and  I  am  here.    Uncle  Jerry,  my  watch.' 

"  All  this  at  the  first  sitting  on  the  very  morn- 
ing the  watch  had  arrived  by  post,  no  one  but 
myself  and  a  shorthand  clerk,  who  happened 
to  have  been  introduced  for  the  first  time  at  this 
sitting  by  me,  and  whose  antecedents  were  well 
known  to  me,  being  present. 

"  Having  thus  ostensibly  got  into  communica- 
tion through  some  means  or  other  with  what 
purported  to  be  Uncle  Jerry,  whom  I  had  indeed 
known  slightly  in  his  later  years  of  blindness,  but 
of  whose  early  life  I  knew  nothing,  I  pointed  out 
to  him  that  to  make  Uncle  Robert  aware  of  his 
presence  it  would  be  well  to  recall  trivial  details 
of  their  boyhood,  all  of  which  I  would  faithfully 
report. 

"  He  quite  caught  the  idea,  and  proceeded 
during  several  successive  sittings  ostensibly  to 
instruct  Doctor  Phinuit  to  mention  a  number 
of  little  things  such  as  would  enable  his  brother 
to  recognize  him.  References  to  his  blindness, 
[151] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

illness,  and  main  facts  of  his  life  were  compara- 
tively useless  from  my  point  of  view;  but  these 
details  of  boyhood,  two-thirds  of  a  century  ago, 
were  utterly  and  entirely  out  of  my  ken. 

"  *  Uncle  Jerry '  recalled  episodes  such  as 
swimming  the  creek  when  they  were  boys  to- 
gether, and  running  some  risk  of  getting  drowned; 
killing  a  cat  in  Smith's  field;  the  possession  of  a 
small  rifle,  and  of  a  long,  peculiar  skin,  like  a 
snakeskin,  which  he  thought  was  now  in  the 
possession  of  Uncle  Robert. 

"  All  these  facts  have  been  more  or  less  com- 
pletely verified.  But  the  interesting  thing  is 
that  his  twin  brother,  from  whom  I  got  the  watch 
and  with  whom  I  was  thus  in  correspondence, 
could  not  remember  them  all.  He  recollected 
sometliing  about  swimming  the  creek,  though  he 
himself  had  merely  looked  on.  He  had  a  distinct 
recollection  of  having  had  the  snakeskin,  and 
of  the  box  in  which  it  was  kept,  though  he  did 
not  know  where  it  was  then.  But  he  altogether 
denied  killing  the  cat,  and  could  not  recall  Smith's 
field. 

"  His  memory,  however,  was  decidedly  failing 
[152] 


AUTOMATIC   SPEAKING   AND  WRITING 

him,  and  he  was  good  enough  to  write  to  another 
brother,  Frank,  living  in  Cornwall,  an  old  sea 
captain,  and  ask  if  he  had  any  better  remem- 
brance of  certain  facts  —  of  course  not  giving 
any  inexplicable  reason  for  asking.  The  result 
of  this  inquiry  was  triumphantly  to  vindicate 
the  existence  of  Smith's  field  as  a  place  near  their 
home,  where  they  used  to  play  in  Barking,  Essex; 
and  the  killing  of  a  cat  by  another  brother  was 
also  recollected;  while  of  the  swimming  of  the 
creek,  near  a  mill-race,  full  details  were  given, 
Frank  and  Jerry  being  the  heroes  of  that  fool- 
hardy episode." 

Sir  Oliver  Lodge  himself  appears  to  believe 
that  he  was  actually  in  communication,  through 
Mrs.  Piper,  with  his  dead  Uncle  Jerry;  and  by 
spiritists  generally  this  is  alluded  to  as  a  charac- 
teristic instance  impossible  of  explanation  on  the 
theory  of  telepathy  between  living  minds.  But 
it  is  pertinent  to  point  out  that  possibly,  in  his 
childhood.  Sir  Oliver  may  have  heard  his  uncles, 
in  some  moment  of  reminiscence,  discussing  these 
very  incidents.  He  would  naturally  have  for- 
gotten the  episode,  so  far  as  conscious  recollection 
[153] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

of  it  was  concerned;  but  he  would  none  the  less 
have  retained  some  memory  of  their  conversa- 
tion in  his  subconsciousness,  whence  Mrs.  Piper 
could  have  gained  knowledge  of  it  telepathically. 
And,  even  had  he  never  heard  of  the  incidents, 
they  might  indeed  have  been  transmitted  to  him 
telepathically  from  the  surviving  uncles,  and  been 
by  him  retransmitted  to  Mrs.  Piper. 

This  last  possibility,  involving  as  it  does  telep- 
athy between  more  than  two  persons,  may  seem 
to  be  far-fetched.  But  there  is  plenty  of  evi- 
dence that  telepathy  of  this  sort  —  known  tech- 
nically as  telepathie  a  trois  —  is  an  actuahty.  I 
have  in  mind  one  particularly  interesting  case 
studied  by  Mr.  Andrew  Lang,  the  brilliant  es- 
sayist and  psychical  researcher.  It  concerns  a 
crystal-gazer  named  Miss  Angus. 

"  Again  and  again,"  to  give  Mr.  Lang's  own 
words,  "  Miss  Angus,  sitting  with  man  or  woman, 
described  acquaintances  of  theirs  but  not  of  hers, 
in  situations  not  known  to  the  sitters  but  proved 
to  be  true  to  fact.  In  one  instance.  Miss  Angus 
described  doings,  from  three  weeks  to  a  fortnight 
old,  of  people  in  India,  people  whom  she  had 
[154] 


AUTOMATIC  SPEAKING  AND  WRITING 

never  seen  or  heard  of,  but  who  were  known  to 
her  sitter.  Her  account,  given  on  a  Saturday, 
was  corroborated  by  a  letter  from  India,  which 
arrived  next  day,  Sunday.  In  another  case  she 
described  —  about  ten  p.  M.  —  what  a  lady,  not 
known  to  her,  but  the  daughter  of  a  matron 
present,  who  was  not  the  sitter,  had  been  doing 
about  four  p.  m.  on  the  same  day.  Again,  sitting 
with  a  lady.  Miss  Angus  described  a  singular  set 
of  scenes  much  in  the  mind,  not  of  her  sitter,  but 
of  a  very  unsympathetic  stranger,  who  was  read- 
ing a  book  at  the  other  end  of  the  room. 

"  I  have  tried  every  hypothesis,  normal  and 
not  so  normal,  to  account  for  these  and  analo- 
gous performances  of  Miss  Angus.  There  was,  in 
the  Indian  and  other  cases,  no  physical  possi- 
bility of  collusion;  chance  coincidence  did  not 
seem  adequate;  ghosts  were  out  of  the  question, 
so  was  direct  clairvoyance.  Nothing  remained 
for  the  speculative  theorizer  but  the  idea  of  cross 
currents  of  telepathy  between  Miss  Angus,  a 
casual  stranger,  the  sitters,  and  people  far  away, 
known  to  the  sitters  or  the  stranger,  but  unknown 
to  Miss  Angus. 

[155] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

"  Now,"  adds  Mr.  Lang,  in  a  paragraph  that 
every  attendant  at  spiritistic  seances  would  do 
well  to  learn  by  heart,  "  suppose  that  Miss 
Angus,  instead  of  dealing  with  living  people  by 
way  of  crystal-visions,  had  dealt  by  way  of  voice 
or  automatic  handwriting,  and  had  introduced 
a  dead  '  communicator.'  Then  she  would  have 
been  on  a  par  with  Mrs.  Piper,  yet  with  no  aid 
from  the  dead." 

That  automatists  "  read  the  mind  "  of  their 
sitters,  or  draw  upon  the  contents  of  their  own 
subconsciousness  in  obtaining  the  facts  which 
they  give  out  as  coming  from  the  spirit  world,  is 
further  evident  from  experiments  in  automatic 
writing  conducted  by  several  American  and  Eng- 
lish psychical  researchers.^ 

But  when  they  are  genuine  automatists,  it 
would   be   unjust   to   accuse   them   of   conscious 

*  The  extent  to  which  automatists  sometimes  draw  on  the 
contents  of  their  own  subconsciousness  is  strikingly  illustrated 
by  a  case  investigated  by  Mr.  Lowes  Dickinson,  wherein  the 
medium,  an  estimable  young  lady  of  his  acquaintance,  was 
seemingly  "  controlled  "  by  the  "  spirit  "  of  a  noblewoman  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  who  described  the  customs,  manners,  and 
personages  of  the  country  in  which  she  claimed  to  have  lived, 
in  such  minute  detail  and  with  such  accuracy  that  it  seemed 

[1561 


AUTOMATIC   SPEAKING   AND  WRITING 

deception  in  attributing  their  communications  to 
discarnate  spirits.  The  trance  state  into  which 
they  usually  fall  is  an  abnormal  condition,  and  is 
not  unlike,  if  not  identical  with,  the  hypnotic 
state.  As  will  be  shown  in  detail  later,  one  of  the 
distinctive  characteristics  of  hypnosis  is  the 
preternaturally  increased  suggestibility  of  the 
person  hypnotized.  He  will  accept  and  act  upon 
the  slightest  suggestion  of  the  hypnotist,  no 
matter  how  ridiculous  and  absurd  the  suggestion 
may  be,  so  long  as  it  is  not  repugnant  to  his 
moral  sense.  Moreover,  he  can  be  induced  to 
think  that  he  is  some  one  other  than  his  real 
self,  and  will  often  assume  the  traits  of  the  sug- 
gested personality  with  a  fidelity  that  is  as- 
tounding. 

So,  likewise,  we  must  believe,  with  the  autom- 
atist,  who  will  impersonate  anybody  suggested 
—  albeit  suggested  quite  unconsciously  —  by  the 

certain  this  was  one  case  at  all  events  in  which  survival  had 
been  proved.  Ultimately  it  was  discovered  that  every  fact 
given  by  the  alleged  spirit  was  contained  in  a  little  known  his- 
torical novel  which  the  medium  had  read,  but  read  only  once, 
when  a  very  small  girl.  So  far  as  conscious  recollection  went 
she  had  forgotten  all  about  this  book,  but  subconsciously  she 
had  evidently  retained  a  marvelously  exact  memory  of  it. 

[157] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

sitters,  whether  it  be  the  "  spirit  "  of  a  Greek 
philosopher,  an  Indian  chief,  or  the  deceased 
friend  of  some  one  present.  Usually  he  is  so 
deeply  entranced  as  to  have  no  knowledge  of 
what  he  is  doing,  just  as  the  hypnotized  subject 
remains  in  ignorance  of  the  actions  he  carries 
out  in  response  to  the  operator's  suggestions. 
But  there  is  a  record  of  at  least  one  instance  in 
which  the  automatist,  an  amateur  psychical  re- 
searcher named  Charles  H.  Tout,  of  Vancouver, 
clearly  recognized  that  his  various  impersona- 
tions were  suggested  to  him  by  the  spectators. 

Mr.  Tout  relates  that  after  attending  a  few 
seances  with  some  friends  he  felt  an  impulse  to 
play  medium  himself  and  assume  an  alien  per- 
sonality. Yielding  to  this  impulse,  he  discovered 
that,  without  losing  complete  control  of  his  con- 
sciousness, he  could  develop  a  secondary  self 
that  would  impose  on  the  beholders  as  a  discar- 
nate  spirit.  On  one  occasion  he  thus  impersonated 
the  "  spirit  "  of  a  dead  woman,  the  mother  of  a 
friend  present,  and  his  impersonation  was  ac- 
cepted as  a  genuine  case  of  spirit  control.  On 
another,  after  having  given  several  successful 
[158] 


AUTOMATIC   SPEAKING   AND   WRITING 

impersonations,  he  suddenly  felt  weak  and  ill.  At 
this  point,  he  states: 

"  One  of  the  sitters  made  the  remark,  which  I 
remember  to  have  overheard,  '  It  is  father  con- 
trolling him,'  and  I  then  seemed  to  realize  who  I 
was  and  whom  I  was  seeking.  I  began  to  be 
distressed  in  my  lungs,  and  should  have  fallen 
if  they  had  not  held  me  by  the  hands  and  let  me 
back  gently  upon  the  floor.  I  was  in  a  measure 
still  conscious  of  my  actions,  though  not  of  my 
surroundings,  and  I  have  a  clear  memory  of  see- 
ing myself  in  the  character  of  my  dying  father 
lying  in  the  bed  and  in  the  room  in  which  he  died. 
It  was  a  most  curious  sensation.  I  saw  his 
shrunken  hands  and  face,  and  lived  again  through 
his  dying  moments;  only  now  I  was  both  myself 
—  in  some  indistinct  sort  of  way  —  and  my 
father,  with  his  feelings  and  appearance." 

All  of  which  Mr.  Tout  rightly  attributes  to 
"  the  dramatic  working  out,  by  some  half-con- 
scious stratum  of  his  personality,  of  suggestions 
made  at  the  time  by  other  members  of  the  circle, 
or  received  in  prior  experiences  of  the  kind." 

Add  to  this  the  known  facts  of  telepathic 
[159] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

action,  and  there  is  no  need  of  looking  further 
for  a  comprehensive  explanation  of  the  otherwise 
perplexing  and  supernatural-seeming  phenomena 
of  psychic  automatism.  This  applies  even  to 
the  phenomenon  of  so-called  "  cross-correspond- 
ence," which  has  been  especially  stressed  the 
past  few  years  by  certain  members  of  the  Society 
for  Psychical  Research  as  affording  proof  posi- 
tive of  survival. 

With  reference  to  this  particular  problem,  it 
should  in  the  first  place  be  said  that,  in  addition 
to  Mrs.  Piper,  there  are  a  number  of  other  auto- 
matic writers  who  have  been  similarly  investi- 
gated by  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  for 
a  long  term  of  years,  and  whose  trustworthiness 
has  likewise  been  definitely  established.  They 
include  a  Mrs.  Holland,  a  Mrs.  Forbes,  a  Mrs. 
Thompson,  Mrs.  Verrall,  of  Newnham  College. 
Cambridge,  England,  and  Mrs.  Verrall's  daugh- 
ter. Miss  Helen  Verrall.  Through  these  ladies 
thousands  of  alleged  "  spirit  messages "  have 
been  received,  including  many  purporting  to 
come  from  Edmund  Gurney,  Henry  Sidgwick, 
Frederic  Myers,  and  Richard  Hodgson,  who  m 
[  160  1 


AUTOMATIC  SPEAKING   AND  WRITING 

their  lifetime  were  the  most  active  and  promi- 
nent members  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Re- 
search. And  among  the  automatic  writings  sup- 
posed to  emanate  from  them  there  have  been 
not  a  few  so  peculiarly  conditioned  as  to  suggest 
not  only  that  the  "  spirits  "  of  the  four  great 
psychical  researchers  are  in  touch  with  their 
living  friends,  but  that  they  are  working  hard 
to  devise  special  tests  to  prove  their  identity. 
To  put  the  matter  more  concretely,  let  me  cite 
the  case  of  Mrs.  Holland.  This  lady  is  a  resident 
of  India.  In  1893,  having  seen  in  the  Review 
of  Reviews  a  reference  to  automatic  writing, 
she  experimented  in  it  herself,  and  found  that 
she  possessed  the  faculty  of  penning  coherent 
sentences  without  being  conscious  of  what  she 
was  writing.  She  continued  these  experiments 
for  ten  years,  or  until  1903,  when,  after  reading 
Myers's  "  Human  Personality  and  its  Survival  of 
Bodily  Death,"  she  one  day  discovered  that  her 
automatic  writing  was  seemingly  no  longer  spon- 
taneous, but  controlled  by  two  outside  intelli- 
gences that  called  themselves  "  Myers "  and 
"  Gurney."  Each  "  control,"  alternating  with 
[161] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

the  other,  caused  her  to  write  long  communica- 
tions, in  which  there  was  mingled  with  much 
that  seemed  unintelligible  and  nonsensical  long 
descriptions  of  unnamed  persons  and  places. 
Her  interest  aroused,  Mrs.  Holland  collected  a 
number  of  these  communications  and  mailed 
them  to  Miss  Alice  Johnson,  Research  Officer 
of  the  English  Society  for  Psychical  Research. 

Examining  them  carefully.  Miss  Johnson  dis- 
covered, much  to  her  surprise,  that  they  con- 
tained unmistakable  references  to  people  and 
the  homes  of  people  whom  Myers  and  Gurney 
had  known  intimately,  but  of  whom,  as  Miss 
Johnson  satisfied  herseK  by  searching  inquiry, 
Mrs.  Holland  had  no  knowledge.  Thus  there 
was  an  excellent  description  of  Mrs.  Verrall,  her 
husband,  Dr.  A.  W.  Verrall,  and  the  Verrall 
dining-room,  in  which  Myers  had  often  been  en- 
tertained. Even  the  street  address  of  the  Verralls 
was  correctly  given.  Miss  Johnson,  as  may  be 
imagined,  at  once  wrote,  urging  Mrs.  Holland 
to  continue  her  automatic  wi'iting,  and  to  forward 
all  her  script  to  the  offices  of  the  Society.  This 
was  done,  with  the  result  that  much  else  of  a 
[162] 


AUTOMATIC  SPEAKING   AND   WRITING 

seemingly  evidential  value  was  soon  obtained. 
It  was  especially  noted  that,  although  Mrs. 
Holland  knew  nothing  of  Latin  and  Greek,  her 
communications  from  the  Myers  control  occasion- 
ally contained  passages  written  in  both  these  lan- 
guages, with  which  Myers  had  been  well  ac- 
quainted. 

November  25,  1903,  the  Gurney  control  wrote 
in  the  automatic  script:  "  Now  there  is  an  experi- 
ment I  want  you  to  make  —  Suggest  to  the  P.  R. 
—  to  Miss  J.  —  that  some  one  with  a  trained 
will  —  she  will  have  no  difficulty  in  finding  some 
one  of  the  sort  —  is  to  try  —  for  a  few  minutes  — 
every  morning  for  at  least  a  month  —  to  convey 
a  thought  —  a  phrase  —  a  name  —  anything  they 
like  —  to  your  mind."  In  due  course  this  sug- 
gestion was  sent  by  Mrs.  Holland  to  Miss  John- 
son, who  arranged  for  a  series  of  such  experi- 
ments, with  Mrs.  Verrall  acting  as  the  second 
medium. 

The  experiments  began  in  March,  1905,  were 

continued   until   towards   the  end   of  May,   and 

were  resumed  for  a  few  weeks  in  the  spring  of  the 

following  year.     The  scheme  adopted,  however, 

[163] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

was  not  exactly  that  suggested  by  the  Gurney 
control.  Instead  of  simply  attempting  to  con- 
vey some  thought  to  Mrs.  Holland's  mind,  Mrs. 
Verrall,  at  Miss  Johnson's  suggestion,  wrote 
automatically  herself  on  each  day  that  Mrs. 
Holland  was  to  write.  Neither  medium  was  to 
hold  the  slightest  communication  with  the  other, 
but  both  were  to  forward  their  automatic  scripts 
to  Miss  Johnson  as  soon  as  written.  In  fact,  in 
order  to  prevent  any  loophole  for  fraud,  Miss 
Johnson  throughout  the  1905  experiments  kept 
Mrs.  Holland  in  ignorance  of  the  identity  of  her 
fellow-experimenter,  who,  on  her  side,  was  igno- 
rant of  Mrs.  Holland's  real  name  —  the  "  Hol- 
land "  being  a  pseudonym.  Some  exceedingly 
interesting  results  were  secured. 

March  1,  1905,  Mrs.  Holland's  script  contained 
these  sentences,  "  There  are  cut  flowers  in  the 
blue  jar  —  jonquils  I  think  and  tulips  —  growing 
tulips  near  the  window.  A  dull  day,  but  the  sky 
hints  at  spring,  and  one  chirping  bird  is  heard 
above  the  roar  of  the  traffic."  In  reply  to  a  ques- 
tioning letter  from  Miss  Johnson,  Mrs.  Verrall 

wrote : 

[164] 


AUTOMATIC  SPEAKING   AND  WRITING 

"  On  March  1  the  only  cut  flowers  in  my  draw- 
ing-room were  in  two  blue  china  jars  on  the 
mantelpiece;  the  flowers  were  large  single  daffo- 
dils. On  the  ledge  of  the  window  .  .  .  were 
three  pots  of  gi'owing  yellow  tulips  —  the  only 
flowers  near  any  window.  The  day  was  dull 
in  the  morning,  but  about  twelve  the  sun  qame 
out  and  it  was  warm;  it  rained  heavily  in  the 
afternoon." 

There  was  no  "  cross-correspondence  "  in  the 
writings  of  the  two  scripts  for  this  or  the  next 
two  weeks  —  the  experimenters  wrote  only  once 
a  week  —  but  in  the  scripts  of  the  week  following 
Miss  Johnson  found  a  curious  coincidence  —  the 
presence  of  notes  of  music.  Only  once  before 
or  since,  she  testifies,  have  notes  of  music  ap- 
peared in  the  script  of  either  Mrs.  Verrall  or  Mrs. 
Holland.  In  Mrs.  Holland's  script  of  that  same 
date,  March  22,  there  was  also  a  reference  to 
"  the  ivory  gate  through  which  all  good  dreams 
come."  Mrs.  Verrall,  it  was  learned,  on  March 
19  or  20,  had  been  reading  Virgil's  passage  in 
the  "  iEneid  "  about  the  gates  of  horn  and  ivory. 
She  had  been  reading  Dante,  too,  in  the  original 
[165] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Italian,  the  first  time  she  had  read  anything  in 
Itahan  for  months;  and,  oddly  enough,  Mrs. 
Holland's  script  for  March  22  contained  a  sen- 
tence in  Italian. 

Later  scripts  were  characterized  by  even  more 
striking  correspondences,  and  —  which  is  not 
without  interest  —  on  more  than  one  occasion 
the  "  controls  "  issued  warnings  against  placing 
faith  in  Eusapia  Paladino.  For  instance,  on 
December  1,  1905,  the  Myers  control  wrote 
through  Mrs.  Holland :  "  There  may  be  raps 
genuine  enough  of  their  kind  —  I  concede  the 
raps  —  poltergeist  merely  —  but  the  luminous 
appearances  — -  the  sounds  of  a  semi-musical  nature 

—  the  flower  falling  upon  the  table  —  trickery 

—  trickery."  And  the  Gurney  control  added: 
"  Her  feet  are  very  important  —  Next  time  can't 
Miss  J.  sit  with  the  sapient  feet  both  touching 
hers  —  Let  her  fix  her  thoughts  on  the  feet  and 
prevent  the  least  movement  of  them." 

As  American  investigators  have  since  discovered, 
Eusapia's  feet  are  indeed  important. 

These  first  experiments  were  followed  by  others, 
in  which,  besides  Mrs.  Holland  and  Mrs.  Verrall, 
[166] 


AUTOMATIC  SPEAKING   AND   WRITING 

all  four  of  the  other  mediums  mentioned  above 
took  part,  and  again  suggestive  cross-correspond- 
ences were  secured.  Besides  which,  having  been 
induced  by  the  results  of  the  Verrall-Holland 
experiments  to  study  more  closely  earlier  scripts 
stored  in  the  Society's  archives.  Miss  Johnson 
discovered  what  seemed  to  be  similar  cross- 
correspondences  that  occurred  before  any  ex- 
periments of  this  kind  were  undertaken.  I  can 
give  only  one  or  two  illustrations.  August  28, 
1901,  Mrs.  Forbes  wrote  a  message  purporting 
to  come  from  her  dead  son  Talbot,  to  the  effect 
that  he  had  to  leave  her  in  order  to  control  an- 
other "  sensitive,"  and  through  her  obtain  corrob- 
oration of  Mrs.  Forbes's  own  automatic  writing. 
On  the  same  day  Mrs.  Verrall  wrote  in  Latin  of  a 
fir  tree  planted  in  a  garden,  and  the  script  was 
signed  with  a  sword  and  a  suspended  bugle. 
The  latter  was  part  of  the  badge  of  the  regiment 
to  which  Talbot  Forbes  had  belonged,  and  Mrs. 
Forbes  had  in  her  garden  some  fir  trees  grown 
from  seed  sent  to  her  by  her  son.  These  facts, 
according  to  Miss  Johnson,  were  unknown  to 
Mrs.  Verrall. 

[167] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

In  another  case  Mrs.  Forbes  wrote,  on  Novem- 
ber 26  and  27,  1902,  references,  absolutely  mean- 
ingless to  herself,  to  a  passage  in  a  book  which 
Mrs.  Verrall  had  been  reading  on  those  days; 
and  the  references  also  applied  appropriately  to 
an  obscure  sentence  in  Mrs.  Verrall's  own  script 
of  November  26. 

But  undoubtedly  the  most  impressive  cross- 
correspondences  were  obtained  in  a  series  of  ex- 
periments extending  from  November,  1906,  to 
June,  1907,  and  involving  concordant  automa- 
tism between  Mrs.  Holland,  in  India,  and  Mrs. 
Piper,  Mrs.  Verrall,  and  Miss  Verrall,  in  Eng- 
land. A  full  report  on  this  series  is  given  in  the 
October,  1908,  issue  of  the  Society's  Proceedings. 
The  plan  followed  was  to  suggest  to  the  controls 
of  Mrs.  Piper  —  in  her  case  the  alleged  "  spirits  " 
of  Myers,  Sidgwick,  and  Hodgson  —  that  they 
transmit  to  one  or  more  of  the  other  automatists 
some  test  word  or  message.  There  were  many 
failures,  but  there  were  also  many  seeming  suc- 
cesses. 

January  16,  1907,  the  Myers  control  promised 
that  it  would,  as  a  proof  of  its  identity,  cause 
[1681 


AUTOMATIC  SPEAKING   AND  WRITING 

Mrs.  Holland  and  Mrs.  Verrall  to  sign  a  piece 
of  automatic  writing  with  a  triangle  drawn  within 
a  circle.  A  circle  with  a  triangle  inside  it  actually 
appeared  in  Mrs.  Verrall's  script  of  January  28, 
while  a  script  from  Mrs.  Holland  exhibited  several 
geometrical  figures,  including  a  circle  with  a 
triangle  outside  it.  February  6  the  same  control 
said  that  it  had  just  been  referring,  through  Mrs. 
Verrall,  to  a  "  library  matter,"  and  investigation 
showed  that  half  an  hour  earlier  Mrs.  Verrall, 
writing  at  her  home  in  Cambridge,  had  begun  a 
script  in  which  the  word  "  library  "  occurred 
three  times  —  the  only  time  during  the  period 
of  the  experiments  that  "  library  "  was  men- 
tioned in  her  automatic  writing  or  in  Mrs.  Piper's 
trance  statements.  The  Myers  control  again,  on 
February  11,  announced  that  it  had  given  "  hope, 
star,  and  Browning  "  to  Mrs.  Verrall,  and  her 
script  showed  that  this  was  correct.  February  12 
the  Hodgson  control  declared  it  had  been  trying 
to  impress  the  word  "  arrow  "  on  Mrs.  Verrall. 
Her  script  for  the  previous  day,  when  received 
at  the  Society's  offices  in  London,  proved  to  be 
decorated  with  a  drawing  of  three  arrows. 
[169] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

It  is  the  multiplicity  of  coincidences  like  these 
—  and  I  have  given  only  the  merest  fragment 
of  the  evidence  in  hand  —  that  has  recently  per- 
suaded many  hitherto  hesitating  psychical  re- 
searchers, notably  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  that  scientific 
proof  of  spirit  communication  has  veritably  been 
obtained.  For  myself,  I  must  frankly  say,  how- 
ever, that  I  cannot  accept  this  view  of  the  case. 
Fraud,  I  admit,  is  out  of  the  question  as  an  ex- 
planatory hypothesis.  Nor  does  it  seem  possible 
to  explain  away  the  evidence  on  the  theory  of 
mere  chance,  guessing,  "  lucky  hits,"  etc.  But 
there  remains  the  hypothesis  of  telepathy  be- 
tween living  minds;  and,  as  it  seems  to  me,  there 
is  nothing  whatever  in  the  evidence  presented 
incompatible  with  the  view  that  the  cross-corre- 
spondences in  question  resulted  from  direct 
thought  transference  between  the  automatists 
themselves. 


[170] 


CHAPTER  V 

POLTERGEISTS   AND    MEDIUMS 

WE  have  now  to  consider  a  very  different 
class  of  spiritistic  manifestations,  the  so- 
called  "  physical  phenomena,"  which  are  his- 
torically among  the  earliest  on  record,  and  at  the 
same  time  are  far  more  spectacular  and  sensa- 
tional than  the  phenomena  produced  by  the 
automatic  speakers  and  writers.  They  include 
such  weird  occurrences  as  the  appearance  in  the 
seance  room  of  ghostly  forms  alleged  to  be  spirits 
"materialized"  by  the  power  of  the  medium; 
the  lifting  of  the  latter  from  the  floor  by  an  in- 
visible force;  the  touching,  pinching,  and  striking 
of  the  sitters  by  unseen  hands,  and  the  movement 
of  small  articles  of  furniture  as  though  alive. 

Occasionally,  when  the  medium  is  particularly 
gifted,  still  more  striking  happenings  take  place. 
Thus,   at  a   seance   with   Eusapia  Paladino,   at- 
tended by  such  eminent  scientists  as  Professors 
I  171  1 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Lombroso,  Bianchi,  Tamburini,  Vizioli,  and  As- 
censi,  men  whose  veracity  is  beyond  question,  it 
is  recorded  by  Lombroso  ^  that: 

"  We  saw  a  great  curtain,  which  separated  our 
room  from  an  alcove  adjoining,  and  which  was 
more  than  three  feet  distant  from  the  medium, 
suddenly  move  out  toward  me,  envelop  me,  and 
wrap  me  close.  Nor  was  I  able  to  free  myself 
from  it  except  with  great  difficulty. 

"  A  dish  of  flour  had  been  put  in  the  little 
alcove  room,  at  a  distance  of  more  than  four  and 
a  half  feet  from  the  medium,  who,  in  her  trance, 
had  thought,  or,  at  any  rate,  spoken,  of  sprinkling 
some  of  the  flour  in  our  faces.  When  light  was 
made,  it  was  found  that  the  dish  was  bottom  side 
up,  with  the  flour  under  it.  This  was  dry,  to  be 
sure,  but  coagulated,  like  gelatine.  This  cir- 
cumstance seems  to  me  doubly  irreconcilable  — 
first,  with  the  laws  of  chemistry,  and,  second, 
with  the  power  of  movement  of  the  medium,  who 
had  not  only  been  bound  as  to  her  feet,  but  had 
her  hands  held  tight  by  our  hands. 

"  When  the  lights  had  been  turned   on,   and 

'  "  After  Death  —  What?  "  pp.  57-58. 
[1721 


POLTERGEISTS  AND   MEDIUMS 

we  were  all  ready  to  go,  a  great  wardrobe  that 
stood  in  the  alcove  room,  about  six  and  a  haH 
feet  away  from  us,  was  seen  advancing  slowly 
towards  us.  It  seemed  like  a  huge  pachyderm 
that  was  proceeding  in  leisurely  fashion  to  attack 
us." 

Other  investigators,  men  of  equally  high  char- 
acter, report  marvels  no  less  amazing.  On  one 
occasion,  Eusapia  Paladino  is  credited  with 
having  created  an  invisible  man,  a  being  which 
the  sitters  could  distinctly  feel,  although  they 
could  not  see  it,  and  which,  annoyed  by  their 
inquisitive  prodding,  finally  turned  on  one  of 
them  and  bit  him  in  the  thumb.  For  this  we  have 
the  authority  of  Professors  Morselli  and  Barzini, 
the  latter  being  the  investigator  whose  thumb 
was   bitten. 

Again,  two  English  noblemen,  Lords  Dunraven 
and  Crawford,  affirm  that  they  several  times 
saw  another  medium,  the  late  D.  D.  Home,  float- 
ing through  the  air;  once  at  a  height  of  more  than 
seventy  feet  above  the  ground;  and  that  the 
same  medium,  by  some  "  spiritual  "  agency,  was 
elongated  in  full  view  of  them,  so  that  they  beheld 
[173] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

his  stature  visibly  increase,  to  decrease  again  to 
normal  height  only  when  he  came  out  of  the 
trance  condition.^ 

Unfortunately,  the  "  spirits "  that  perform 
these  uncanny  feats  have  a  strong  liking  for 
darkness,  a  circumstance  which  has  led  to  whole- 
sale, and  repeatedly  substantiated,  accusations 
of  fraud.  In  fact,  there  is  no  other  department 
of  spiritism  to  which  the  taint  of  fraud  has  so 
thoroughly  attached  itself.  It  is  obvious  that 
any  clever  charlatan,  by  persuading  his  sitters 
that  darkness  is  necessary  for  the  development 
of  occult  phenomena,  can  produce  most  mysti- 
fying effects,  and  the  records  of  scientific  investi- 
gations, to  say  nothing  of  the  records  of  our 
police  courts,  abound  in  evidence  that  swindlers 
have  not  been  slow  in  availing  themselves  of 
this  opportunity  to  prey  on  the  credulous  and 
superstitious.  The  lengths  to  which  bogus  me- 
diums will  sometimes  go,  and  the  extreme  gulli- 
bility which  renders  their  operations  ridiculously 
easy  and  highly  profitable,  are   amusingly   iUus- 

*  A  detailed  account  of  Home's  performances  will  be  found 
in  my  book,  "  Historic  Ghosts  and  Ghost-Hunters,"  pp.  143- 
170. 

[174] 


POLTERGEISTS  AND   MEDIUMS 

trated  by  a  story  told  by  Mr.  Hereward  Car- 
rington,  an  investigator  who  has  done  much  to 
make  the  pubHc  acquainted  with  the  ways  of 
fraudulent  "  psychics." 

One  of  these,  according  to  Mr.  Carrington,  had 
among  his  patrons  an  elderly  business  man,  the 
head  of  a  large  concern  that  manufactured  farm- 
ing implements.  After  several  months  of  inter- 
course, during  which  the  medium  deftly  led  him 
on  from  marvel  to  marvel,  until  at  last  there  was 
no  "  phenomenon "  too  incredible  for  him  to 
swallow,  he  was  informed  that  at  the  next  seance 
he  would  have  the  unique  experience  of  convers- 
ing with  the  spirit  of  a  deceased  inhabitant  of 
the  planet  Jupiter. 

Sure  enough,  after  the  lights  had  been  carefully 
turned  low,  he  was  accosted  by  a  tall,  shadowy 
figure,  which  announced  itself  as  a  spirit  from 
Jupiter,  and  which,  speaking  excellent  English, 
proceeded  to  describe  the  conditions  of  life  in 
that  far-off  sphere.  The  Jupiterians,  it  appeared, 
were  a  poor,  ignorant  lot,  scarcely  removed  from 
barbarism;  they  were  greatly  in  need  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  any  one  who  should  help  in  civilizing 
[1751 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

them  would  be  generously  rewarded  in  the  future 
life. 

"  I  should  be  glad  to  do  all  in  my  power,"  the 
business  man  eagerly  volunteered,  "  but  I'm 
afraid  there's  nothing  I  could  do." 

"  Yes,  indeed,  there  is.  I  understand  that  you 
make  farm  implements  and  machinery.  Well, 
they  haven't  as  much  as  a  spade  on  Jupiter. 
If  you  would  send  a  few  tools  there,  it  would  be  a 
great  step  toward  civilizing  them." 

"  But  how  in  the  world  could  I  get  anything 
to  them.^  " 

"  That  is  quite  simple,"  the  "  spirit  "  glibly 
explained.  "  Just  send  the  things  to  the  medium 
here,  and  he  will  dematerialize  them  and  ship 
them  to  Jupiter,  where  they  will  be  rematerial- 
ized." 

Instead  of  seeing  in  this  a  daring  attempt  to 
fleece  him,  the  victim  joyfully  acquiesced,  and 
sent  a  number  of  spades,  plows,  harrows,  etc., 
to  the  medium,  who  promptly  disposed  of  them, 
not  to  the  people  of  Jupiter,  but  to  a  dealer  in 
such  articles.  Other  seances  followed,  the  spirit 
from  Jupiter  again  appearing  and  describing  in 
[1761 


POLTERGEISTS  AND   MEDIUMS 

picturesque  language  the  beneficent  consequences 
of  the  welcome  presents.  This  meant  more  gifts, 
which  steadily  increased  in  number  and  value, 
until  the  confederate  who  had  been  playing  the 
part  of  the  dead  Jupiterian  finally  became  fright- 
ened. 

"  Look  here,"  he  told  the  medium,  "  this  has 
got  to  stop.  It  was  all  very  well  when  you  were 
satisfied  with  plows,  and  rakes,  and  little  things 
like  that,  but  now  that  you  have  got  him  giving 
you  horses  and  harvesters  there's  bound  to  be 
trouble.  He's  sure  to  find  out  in  the  end,  and 
some  fine  morning  we'll  wake  up  on  the  inside  of  a 
jail." 

"  Oh,  don't  worry,"  said  the  medium.  "  He'll 
never  find  out  anything." 

"  I'm  not  so  certain  of  that.  At  any  rate, 
you'll  have  to  get  somebody  to  take  my  place." 

One  word  led  to  another,  and  ended  in  a  violent 
quarrel.  The  confederate,  vowing  vengeance, 
called  on  the  business  man,  and  told  him  how  he 
had  been  duped.  He  was  met  with  the  astonish- 
ing reply: 

"  I  don't  believe  a  word  you  say." 
[  177  1 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

"  You   don't?  "  he  cried.     "  Didn't  you  send 
the  medium,  only  yesterday,  a  horse  and  cart  to 
be  demateriahzed?  " 
"  Yes." 

"  Well,  if  you  wish  to  know  where  they  are, 
come  with  me.  He  has  them  in  a  stable  near  his 
house,  waiting  to  find  a  buyer." 

Together  they  went  to  the  stable,  where  the 
confederate  pointed  out  the  horse  and  cart  that 
had  been  given  to  the  medium.  In  particular, 
he  identified  the  cart  by  the  number  painted  on  it. 
"  Come,  now,"  said  he,  "  you  can't  deny  that's 
your  cart,  can  you.''  " 

"  Why,"  was  the  answer,  "  it  does  indeed  look 
like  my  cart.    But  I  know  it  isn't." 
"  How  do  you  know  it  isn't?  " 
"  Because  "  —  in  a  tone  of  solemn  conviction 
—  "I  know   that  by   this   time  my   cart   is   on 
Jupiter." 

In  another  case,  drawn  to  my  attention  by  a 
lawyer  friend,  the  victim  was  a  well-to-do  Boston 
merchant,  who  had  become  interested  in  spiritism 
shortly  after  the  death  of  his  wife,  to  whom  he  had 
been  devotedly  attached,  and  with  whose  spirit 
[178] 


POLTERGEISTS  AND   MEDIUMS 

he  hoped  to  be  brought  into  communication.  A 
medium,  learning  this,  determined  to  profit  from 
his  grief  and  longing,  and  hired  a  young  woman 
to  pose  as  the  spirit  of  the  dead  wife.  He  was 
then  told  that  before  long  it  would  be  possible  to 
"  materialize  "  his  wife  from  the  spirit  world 
with  such  substantiality  that  he  would  be  able 
to  clasp  her  in  his  arms. 

When  the  appointed  time  came,  a  slender  form, 
draped  in  gauze,  emerged  from  the  mediumistic 
cabinet  into  the  darkened  seance  room,  and 
saluted  him  with  a  joyful  cry  of  "Husband!" 
There  was  not  light  enough  to  see  the  "  spirit's  " 
face,  but  he  did  not  for  an  instant  doubt  that  he 
was  really  gazing  at  his  wife,  and  rose  to  embrace 
her.  At  once  the  figure  vanished,  and  after  the 
lights  were  turned  up  the  medium  explained  that 
there  would  have  to  be  a  good  many  "  materializa- 
tions "  before  the  spirit  form  would  be  solid 
enough  for  him  to  touch  it. 

This  meant,  of  course,  numerous  seances,  for 

which    the    deluded    husband    paid    handsomely. 

It  also  helped  to  blind  him  to  the  true  state  of 

affairs,  and  increased  his  infatuation  to  such  an 

[179] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

extent  that  when  at  length  the  "  spirit  "  sub- 
mitted to  his  caresses,  it  did  not  seem  at  all 
incongruous  to  find  that  he  was  pressing  to  his 
breast  a  flesh-and-blood  woman. 

The  medium  now  resolved  on  a  bold  stroke. 
Acting  under  her  instruction,  the  "  spirit  "  bit- 
terly complained  one  evening  that  she  did  not 
possess  any  jewelry. 

"What!"  her  "husband"  exclaimed.  "Do 
you  mean  to  say  that  they  wear  jewelry  in  the 
other   world?  " 

"  Oh,  yes.  But  nothing  to  compare  with 
what  I  had  while  on  earth.  What  have  you  done 
with  mine.f^  " 

"  I  have  it  all  —  every  piece  —  put  away  in  a 
little  box." 

"  Good.  Then  if  you  will  bring  it  to-morrow 
night,  I  can  take  it  with  me  when  I  leave  you. 
The  medium,  you  know,  can  dematerialize  it  for 
us." 

"I  will  bring  it.    Rest  assured  of  that." 

Alas  for  husbandly  devotion!  The  seance  at 
which  he  turned  over  the  jewelry  to  the  affec- 
tionate "  spirit  "  of  his  wife  was  the  last  at  which 
[180] 


POLTERGEISTS  AND  MEDIUMS 

he  held  communion  with  her.  When  he  next 
called,  he  was  told  that  the  medium  had  been 
unexpectedly  summoned  out  of  town.  She  never 
came  back. 

These  two  episodes  are  typical  rather  than 
exceptional  instances  of  the  sort  of  thing  that 
has  been  going  on  for  years  in  connection  with  the 
physical  phenomena  of  spiritism.  Its  continuance 
has  been  made  possible  largely  by  a  widespread 
belief,  entertained  not  by  the  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious merely,  but  by  men  of  distinction  in  the 
intellectual  and  scientific  world,  that,  notwith- 
standing the  prevalence  of  fraud,  there  are  at 
least  some  physical  phenomena  which  must  be 
accounted   genuine. 

Men  like  the  Italian  savants  already  named, 
the  English  naturalist,  Alfred  Russel  Wallace; 
the  great  chemist.  Sir  William  Crookes;  the 
French  astronomer,  Camille  Flammarion,  and 
many  others  who  might  be  mentioned,  are 
satisfied  that  they  have  witnessed  in  the 
seance  room  occurrences  out  of  all  accord 
with  natural  laws,  and  not  to  be  attributed  to 
fraud. 

[  181  ] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

In  support  of  this  view,  emphasis  is  laid  on 
the  fact  that,  leaving  out  of  consideration  all 
mediums  who  employ  their  powers  as  a  means  of 
livelihood,  physical  phenomena  of  the  most 
bizarre  sort  have  been  manifested  through  men 
and  women  in  private  life,  who  cannot  possibly 
have  a  pecuniary  motive  for  deception,  and 
whose  character  is  beyond  reproach. 

One  of  the  most  celebrated  of  physical  mediums, 
in  fact,  was  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, the  Reverend  W.  Stainton  Moses,  a  gentle- 
man respected  and  warmly  esteemed  by  all  who 
knew  him.^ 

As  a  further  argument  in  behalf  of  the  authen- 
ticity of  certain  of  the  phenomena,  attention  is 
also  called  to  the  interesting  circumstance  that, 
long  before  spiritism  and  spiritistic  mediums 
were  heard  of,  similar  marvels  —  including  seem- 
ingly spontaneous  movements  of  furniture,  and 
the  occurrence  of  mysterious  raps,  knockings, 
and  other  noises  —  were  frequently  reported  by 
thoroughly  reputable  witnesses. 

'  An  excellent  study  of  the  mediumship  of  Stainton  Moses 
is  contained  in  Frank  Podmore's  "  Modem  Spiritualism,"  vol. 
ii,  pp.  276-288. 

[1821 


POLTERGEISTS  AND   MEDIUMS 

To  mention  only  a  few  cases,  ^  as  long  ago  as 
1661  there  was  an  outbreak  of  this  kind  at  the 
home  of  a  wealthy  Englishman  named  Mom- 
pesson,  an  invisible  ghost  for  months  disturbing 
the  peace  of  the  Mompesson  family  by  beating 
on  a  drum,  banging  at  doors,  tugging  at  bed- 
clothes, and  hurling  household  articles  about  in 
a  most  destructive  manner.  The  affair  made  so 
much  stir  that  a  royal  commission  was  sent  to 
inquire  into  it,  but  signally  failed  to  lay  the 
ghost.  For  nearly  a  year,  in  1716-1717,  the 
Reverend  Samuel  Weslej^  father  of  the  founder 
of  Methodism,  was  tormented  in  like  fashion  at 
his  rectory  in  Lincolnshire.  In  1753  a  Russian 
monastery  was  invaded  by  an  equally  malicious 
and  equally  invisible  "  spirit,"  which  for  months 
amused  itself  by  ringing  the  monastery  bells  at 
unseemly  hours.  Nine  years  later  all  London 
was  thrilled  by  the  celebrated  Cock  Lane  ghost, 
which  produced  spirit  rappings  with  as  much 
eclat  as  the  most  up-to-date,  medium-invoked 
visitant  from  "  the  other  side."    In  none  of  these 


'  Studied  in  detail  in  my  book,  "  Historic  Ghosts  and  Ghost- 
Hunters." 

[183] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

instances  did  contemporary  investigators  find  a 
wholly  satisfactory  explanation  for  the  singular 
phenomena   involved. 

Nevertheless,  it  may  confidently  be  aflBrmed 
that,  instead  of  strengthening  the  case  for  the 
physical  phenomena  of  spiritism,  the  doings  of 
the  poltergeists  —  as  these  tricky  ghosts  are 
called  by  psychical  researchers  —  considerably 
weaken  it.  For  during  recent  years  a  number  of 
poltergeist  hauntings  have  been  looked  into  by 
members  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
and  whenever  the  conditions  have  been  such  as 
to  permit  a  thorough  investigation,  it  has  been 
found  that,  so  far  from  being  spiritual  entities, 
poltergeists  are  invariably  compounded  of  deceit, 
credulity,  and  delusion.  Even  more  important, 
from  the  standpoint  of  getting  at  the  true  inward- 
ness of  physical  mediumship,  the  discovery  has 
been  made  that  fraud  has  frequently  been  prac- 
tised in  poltergeist  cases  without  any  apparent 
motive. 

Again  I  will  give  an  instance  from  actual  oc- 
currence, in  order  to  make  my  meaning  perfectly 
clear.  Word  was  one  day  received  at  the  London 
[184] 


POLTERGEISTS  AND   MEDIUMS 

oflBces  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  that 
a  ghost  had  taken  possession  of  a  farmhouse  in 
Shropshire,  and  was  making  Kfe  miserable  for  the 
lawful  occupants,  a  family  named  Hampson  and 
their  two  maidservants,  Priscilla  Evans  and 
Emma  Davies.  Nobody  saw  the  ghost,  but  it 
made  its  presence  felt  in  true  poltergeist  style. 

It  had  announced  its  advent,  about  four  o'clock 
one  fine  afternoon,  by  lifting  a  saucepan  from  the 
kitchen  fire  and  throwing  it  across  the  room,  pick- 
ing red-hot  coals  out  of  the  fire  and  scattering 
them  over  the  floor,  and  by  causing  a  lamp  globe 
to  fly  miraculously  through  the  air.  This  last 
prank,  naturally  enough,  so  frightened  the 
Hampsons  and  their  servants  that  they  fled  from 
the  house,  and  summoned  aid  from  the  nearest 
neighbors,  among  them  a  Mr.  Lea,  who,  in  the 
report  that  reached  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,^  declared  that  when  he  approached  the 
Hampson  homestead,  it  seemed  as  if  all  the  up- 
stairs rooms  were  on  fire,  "  as  there  was  such  a 
light  in  the  windows." 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  xii, 
pp.    58-67. 

[185] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Reenforced,  the  Hampsons  made  bold  to  enter 
the  house  again,  but  the  poltergeist  had  seem- 
ingly formed  a  strong  dislike  to  them,  for  the 
report  added: 

"  As  things  were  continuing  to  jump  about  the 
kitchen  in  a  manner  which  was  altogether  inex- 
plicable, and  many  were  getting  damaged,  Hamp- 
son  decided  to  remove  everything  out  of  the 
apartment.  He  accordingly  took  down  a  barom- 
eter from  the  wall,  when  something  struck  him 
on  the  leg,  and  a  loaf  of  bread,  which  was  on 
the  table,  was  thrown  by  some  invisible  means, 
and  hit  him  on  the  back.  A  volume  of  '  Pilgrim's 
Progress  '  was  thrown,  or  jumped,  through  the 
window,  and  a  large,  ornamental  sea-shell  went 
through  in  similar  fashion. 

"  In  the  parlor  a  sewing  machine  was  thrown 
about  and  damaged.  The  nurse  girl  was  nursing 
the  baby  by  the  fire  when  some  fire  leaped  from 
the  grate,  and  the  child's  hair  was  singed  and 
its  arms  burned.  The  girl  was  so  alarmed  that 
she  set  off  to  a  neighbor's,  and  on  the  way  there 
her  clothes  took  fire,  and  had  to  be  torn  from  her 
body.  During  the  evening,  while  the  girl  was 
[186] 


POLTERGEISTS  AND  MEDIUMS 

at  the  neighbor's,  a  plate,  which  she  touched  while 
having  her  supper,  was  repeatedly  thrown  on  the 
floor,  and  the  pieces  were  picked  up  by  some  un- 
seen agency,  and  put  in  the  center  of  the  table." 
On  the  girl's  return  to  the  Hampson  place  the 
manifestations  broke  out  anew.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Lea  were  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  they  were 
the  work  of  the  devil;  the  Hampsons,  however, 
inclined  to  the  view  that  the  blame  lay  at  the  door 
of  some  evil  spirit  that  was  especially  desirous  of 
tormenting  the  nurse  girl,  Emma  Davies,  it  being 
noticed  that  things  quieted  down  whenever  she 
was  out  of  the  house.  On  this  theory  they  sent 
her  to  her  home  in  a  neighboring  village,  where 
the  poltergeist  continued  to  annoy  her.  In  the 
presence  of  a  police  officer,  watching  her  closely 
to  detect  evidence  of  fraud,  it  wrenched  the 
buttons  from  her  dress  and  ripped  out  the  stitches 
of  her  apron.  While  the  village  schoolmistress 
and  some  twenty  other  people  looked  on,  it  twice 
drew  off  her  shoes  and  tossed  them  to  the  opposite 
side  of  the  room;  and  it  was  said  to  have  after- 
ward lifted  her  bodily  from  the  floor,  and  held 
her  suspended  in  mid-air. 
[187] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Clearly,  this  was  a  case  calling  for  investiga- 
tion, and  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research  at 
once  commissioned  one  of  its  expert  detectives 
of  the  supernatural,  Mr.  F.  S.  Hughes,  to  proceed 
to  the  scene  of  the  disturbances.  But  before  he 
arrived,  the  mystery  was  solved.  The  girl,  it 
seems,  had  been  made  so  nervous  and  excited 
by  the  unwelcome  attentions  of  the  poltergeist 
that  it  was  thought  best  to  place  her  in  a  physi- 
cian's care,  and  she  was  accordingly  taken  to  a 
sanitarium  and  kept  in  strict  seclusion,  under  the 
constant  observation  of  the  physician's  house- 
keeper. Miss  Turner,  a  shrewd,  level-headed 
woman.  For  three  days,  the  poltergeist  continued 
to  plague  her.  Then  it  suddenly  took  its  de- 
parture, under  the  following  circumstances,  nar- 
rated by  Mr.  Hughes  in  his  official  report: 

"  On  Tuesday  morning  Miss  Turner  was  in  an 
upper  room  at  the  back  of  the  house,  and  the 
servant  of  the  establishment  and  Emma  Davies 
were  outside,  Emma  having  her  back  to  the 
house,  and  unaware  that  she  was  observed.  Miss 
Turner  noticed  that  she  had  a  piece  of  brick  in 
her  hand,  held  behind  her  back.  This  she  threw 
[1881 


POLTERGEISTS  AND  MEDIUMS 

to  a  distance  by  a  turn  of  the  wrist,  and,  while 
doing  so,  screamed  to  attract  the  attention  of 
the  servant,  who,  of  course,  turning  round,  saw 
the  brick  in  the  air,  and  was  very  much  frightened. 
Emma  Davies,  looking  round,  saw  that  she  had 
been  seen  by  Miss  Turner,  and,  apparently  im- 
agining that  she  had  been  found  out,  was  very 
anxious  to  return  home  that  night. 

"  Miss  Turner  took  no  notice  of  the  occurrence 
at  the  time,  but  the  next  morning  she  asked  the 
girl  if  she  had  been  playing  tricks,  and  the  girl 
confessed  that  she  had,  and  went  through  some 
of  the  performances  very  skillfully,  according  to 
Miss  Turner's  account.  Later  on  in  the  day  she 
repeated  these  in  the  presence  of  the  doctor. 
Miss  Turner,  and  two  reporters  from  London." 

Obviously,  trickster  though  she  was,  the  girl 
had  no  rational  motive  for  her  conduct.  It  had 
already  cost  her  a  good  position,  and  rendered  it 
most  unlikely  that  she  would  easily  get  another. 
And,  in  fact,  this  same  absence  of  motive  is 
conspicuous  in  nearly  all  the  poltergeist  cases 
exposed  by  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
and  by  independent  investigators.  It  is  also 
[1891 


ADVENTURINGS    IN    THE    PSYCHICAL 

noteworthy  that  when  discovery  is  made,  the 
active  agent  is  usually  found  to  be  a  boy  or  girl, 
man  or  woman,  constitutionally  or  temporarily 
in  an  abnormal  nervous  condition. 

In  this  particular  case,  for  instance,  the  girl, 
Emma  Davies,  on  the  testimony  of  her  mother, 
was  subject  to  "fits,"  In  another  case,  investi- 
gated by  the  Society,  the  poltergeist  was  defi- 
nitely identified  with  a  little  deformed  girl,  twelve 
years  old,  of  decidedly  abnormal  characteristics. 
In  a  third  case,  investigated  by  Mr.  Frank 
Podmore,  another  member  of  the  Society  and  a 
specialist  on  poltergeists,  a  confession  of  fraud 
was  elicited  from  a  neurotic  boy  of  fifteen  —  a 
confession  only  partial,  it  is  true,  but  in  one  sense 
more  illuminating  than  any  full  confession  would 
have  been.  The  case  is  so  instructive,  both  for 
its  revelation  of  the  almost  incredible  credulity 
of  many  devotees  of  spiritism,  and  for  the  light 
it  throws  on  the  problems  of  physical  medium- 
ship,  that  I  quote  it,  condensed,  from  Mr.  Pod- 
more's  detailed  review  of  his  investigation.^ 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  xii, 
pp.  101-103. 

[1901 


POLTERGEISTS  AND   MEDIUMS 

"  In  the  autumn  of  1894,"  he  states,  "  Mrs.  B., 
a  lady  living  in  a  provincial  town,  gave  me  an 
account  of  certain  curious  incidents  which  had 
recently  taken  place  in  her  house.  The  occu- 
pants of  the  house  —  an  old  one  —  consisted, 
besides  Mrs.  B.  and  her  family,  of  a  widow  lady, 
Mrs.  D.,  and  her  two  children,  a  girl  of  about 
twenty,  CD.,  and  a  boy  of  fifteen,  E.  D. 

"  Mrs.  B.,  C.  D.,  and  E.  D.  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  trying  experiments  with  planchette  in 
the  evening.  Planchette  had  given  them  to 
understand  that  the  house  was  haunted  by  four 
spirits,  a  wicked  marquis,  a  wicked  monk,  a  lay 
desperado,  and  a  virtuous  and  beautiful  young 
lady.  These  spirits  wrote,  through  planchette, 
of  treasure  concealed  in  the  house,  of  a  hidden 
chamber,  and  many  other  matters.  Among  other 
proofs  were  the  following: 

"  One  evening  after  dark,  Mrs.  B.,  in  accord- 
ance with  directions  received  through  planchette, 
went  with  CD.  and  E.  D.  to  an  old  oak  tree  in 
the  garden,  and,  standing  with  the  girl  and  boy 
on  either  side,  holding  a  hand  of  each,  she  dis- 
tinctly heard  a  stone  strike  the  garden  roller  a 
[1911 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

few  feet  off.  The  phenomenon  was  repeated 
twice;  and  her  companions  solemnly  assured 
her  that  they  had  no  part  in  the  performance. 

"  On  another  occasion,  sitting  in  a  bedroom 
in  the  dark,  with  only  E.  D.  in  the  room,  Mrs.  B. 
was  struck  by  a  stone  on  the  temple,  heard  objects 
thrown  about  the  room,  felt  an  arm  put  through 
hers,  and  so  on.  Some  of  these  phenomena  oc- 
curred when  she  was  alone  in  the  room  —  but 
with  the  door,  I  gathered,  not  shut. 

"  Mrs.  B.  one  morning  placed  a  white  chrysan- 
themum bouquet  on  the  boughs  of  the  oak  tree. 
It  disappeared  shortly  afterward,  and  on  the 
next  morning  two  other  small  bouquets  were 
found  there.  Mrs.  B.  asked  for  whom  these  were 
intended,  and  went  away,  leaving  pencil  and 
paper.  On  her  return  she  found  the  paper  torn 
in  half,  and  the  mitials  of  her  own  Christian 
name,  and  that  of  C.  D.,  written  on  the  two 
halves  respectively,  with  a  bouquet  on  each  half. 

"  About  this  time  a  secret  chamber  was  dis- 
covered,  with   the   skeleton   of   a   cat  crouching 
in  act  to  spring,  and  the  skeleton  of  a  woman. 
Asked  more  particularly  about  the  latter,  Mrs.  B. 
[192] 


POLTERGEISTS  AND   MEDIUMS 

said:  'Well,  at  least  a  skull  and  some  bones  — 
but  it  was  a  woman's  skull.' 

"  A  few  days  after  receiving  this  account,  I 
went  down  by  invitation  to  the  house.  I  saw 
Mrs.  D.  and  her  two  children,  and  received  from 
them  ungrudging  corroboration  of  Mrs.  B.'s 
marvelous  story.  In  E.  D.'s  company  I  pene- 
trated the  secret  chamber,  and  found  there  the 
mummified  skeleton  of  what  might  have  been  a 
cat  —  but  nothing  else.  In  removing  the  stains 
left  by  this  exploit,  I  contrived  a  tete-a-tete  in- 
terview with  E.  D.,  and  asked  him:  '  How  much 
did  you  do  of  all  these  things.^* '  He  replied: 
'  Oh,  not  much.    I  only  did  a  few  little  things.' 

"  Pressed  on  particular  points,  he  admitted 
having  thrown  one  stone  at  the  garden  roller,  and 
having  also  thrown  a  trouser  button  against  the 
wall  when  sitting  alone  in  the  bedroom  with 
Mrs.  B.  He  denied  having  produced  the  other 
phenomena  on  those  occasions.  Asked  as  to  the 
bouquets,  he  said  he  had  not  placed  them  on 
the  tree.  Pressed  a  little  more,  he  said:  '  If  I 
did  it,  it  must  have  been  without  knowing  it.' 
This  without  any  suggestion  from  me  as  to  pos- 
[193] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

sible  somnambulism,  or  unconscious  action.  He 
assured  me  that  his  sister  had  had  no  hand  in  this 
matter.  I  could  not  get  any  more  out  of  him,  as 
he  was  shortly  after  called  away. 

"  I  subsequently  learned  from  his  mother  that 
E.  D.  was  so  nervous  and  delicate  that  he  slept 
in  her  room  at  night;  that  he  was  not  allowed 
to  do  much  mental  work;  that  he  was  subject 
to  attacks  of  somnambulism;  and  had,  indeed, 
fallen  into  a  semiconscious  state  only  a  few  days 
before,  during  a  lesson  in  carpentry." 

Probably  the  whole  affair  originated  in  a 
moment  of  mischief,  and  was  carried  on  and 
elaborated  because  of  an  uncontrollable,  and 
perhaps  not  entirely  conscious,  desire  on  the 
part  of  the  abnormally  conditioned  lad  to  mystify 
the  too  easily  imposed  upon  elderly  lady. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  investigations  of  the  So- 
ciety for  Psychical  Research  make  it  certain 
that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  a  poltergeist  is  a 
by-product  of  hysteria,  using  the  term  in  its 
strictest  medical  sense.  As  is  well  known,  one 
of  the  distinctive  symptoms  of  hysteria  is  a  tend- 
ency to  indulge  in  all  manner  of  lies  and  decep- 
[1941 


POLTERGEISTS  AND  MEDIUMS 

tions,  coupled  often  with  almost  diabolical  clever- 
ness in  giving  these  lies  and  deceptions  a  color 
of  reality.  Impulse  to  such  trickery  may  arise 
from  a  great  variety  of  motives;  frequently,  it 
would  seem,  from  nothing  more  than  an  abnor- 
mal craving  for  notoriety  and  admiration.  Cer- 
tainly, the  hysterical  young  people  run  to  earth 
by  the  poltergeist  hunters  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  did  not  engage  in  their  hoax- 
ings  because  they  expected  to  make  money  out 
of  them. 

The  bearing  of  all  this  on  the  physical  phe- 
nomena of  spiritism  is  surely  self-evident.  It 
shows,  for  one  thing,  that  the  money  motive 
is  not  the  only  motive  inciting  mediums  to  fraud; 
that  when  a  neurotic  or  hysterical  condition  is 
present,  the  best  of  characters  is  no  guarantee 
against  duplicity;  and  that  under  such  circum- 
stances the  detection  of  fraud  is  exceedingly 
diflScult,  particularly  in  the  case  of  witnesses  pre- 
disposed to  regard  the  phenomena  as  genuine. 
If  hysterical  children  can,  as  they  have  often 
done,  carry  on  a  course  of  deception  mystifying 
a  whole  community,  it  is  manifest  that  mediums 
[195] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

of  similar  hysterical  tendencies,  working  under 
cover  of  darkness  or  in  a  dim  light,  can  more  or 
less  readily  deceive  the  most  expert  observers; 
and,  moreover,  that  they  may  be  only  partially, 
if  at  all,  conscious  of  their  own  frauds.^ 

Further,  in  estimating  the  nature  of  the  phe- 
nomena produced  at  the  seances  of  physical 
mediums,  it  is  imperative  to  take  into  account 
the  innumerable  possibilities  of  mal-observation 
on  the  part  of  the  spectators.  Experience  has 
shown  that  comparatively  few  people,  no  matter 
how  honest,  are  trustworthy  witnesses  even  when 
conditions  for  observation  are  of  the  best. 

For  proof  of  this,  one  does  not  need  to  look 
beyond  the  courtroom,  where  every  day  per- 
fectly honest  people  give  the  most  contradictory 
accounts  of  some  simple  occurrence.  If  it  is  thus 
difficult  to  see  correctly  what  goes  on  in  the 
broad  light  of  day,  it  surely  is  far  more  difficult 
to  be  certain  of  exactly  what  is  happening  in  a 
room  where  there  is  darkness  rather  than  light. 
Besides  which,  the  imaginative  faculty  may  be 

>  I  am  inclined,  for  example,  to  believe  that  there  is  a  large 
element  of  hysteria  in  the  mediumship  of  the  discredited  Eusapia 
Paladino,  once  the  marvel  of  two  continents. 

[196] 


POLTERGEISTS  AND  MEDIUMS 

excited  to  such  an  extent  that  the  sitters  at  a 
seance  may  not  only  be  misled  into  making  inac- 
curate reports  of  what  really  occurred,  but  they 
may  even,  and  with  absolute  sincerity,  testify 
to  phenomena  which  did  not  occur  at  all. 

A  friend  of  mine,  now  a  physician  in  Maryland, 
used  to  amuse  himself  in  his  student  days  by 
playing  medium  at  table-tipping  seances.  He 
would  cause  the  table  to  rap  out  messages  to 
various  acquaintances  of  his,  none  of  whom  were 
spiritists,  but  several  of  whom  became  intensely 
interested,  owing  to  their  inability  to  fathom  the 
source  of  the  communications  they  received,  my 
friend  managing  things  so  skillfully  that  they  did 
not  suspect  him  of  hoaxing  them. 

One  evening  the  table  announced  the  presence 
of  the  "  spirit  "  of  a  little  child,  the  daughter  of  a 
lady  well  known  to  most  of  the  sitters.  They 
were  not  aware,  however,  that  my  friend  was 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  little  one's  life 
history,  and  when,  utilizing  this  knowledge,  he 
proceeded  to  make  the  table  rap  communications 
of  a  most  personal  character,  there  was  consid- 
erable excitement.  Suddenly  a  lady  present,  not 
[197] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

a  relative  of  the  dead  child,  uttered  a    piercing 
scream,  and  fainted. 

When  she  was  revived,  she  declared,  with 
emphatic  assurance,  that  she  had  seen  the  head 
of  a  child  emerge  from  the  center  of  the  table. 

Equally  indicative  of  the  part  imagination 
plays  in  constructing  spiritistic  phenomena  is 
an  experience  of  my  own  with  a  New  York  me- 
dium. His  specialty  was  materialization,  but  at 
the  seance  in  question  he  did  not  attempt  to 
develop  "  spirit  forms  "  by  any  of  the  methods 
in  vogue  among  materializers.  Instead,  the  gas 
having  been  lowered  until  the  room  was  almost  in 
total  darkness,  he  went  into  a  "  trance,"  and, 
seated  at  the  seance  table,  with  his  head  resting 
on  his  hands,  declaimed  in  a  singsong  voice: 

"  The  spirits  are  coming.  I  can  feel  them  ap- 
proaching. Y^ou  will  be  able  to  see  them  soon. 
They  are  almost  here.  Here  is  one  now,  on  my 
left.  Can't  you  see  it.^^  And  here  comes  another, 
and  another.  They  are  crowding  around  me,  so 
anxious  to  communicate  with  you.  Can't  you 
see  them?  I  can't  hold  them  long;  they  will  be 
gone  soon.  Oh,  can't  you  see  them?  " 
[1981 


POLTERGEISTS  AND  MEDIUMS 

There  were,  perhaps,  a  dozen  people  present, 
including  myself  and  a  fellow  investigator,  who 
had  accompanied  me.  Of  the  others,  three  re- 
sponded to  the  hypnotic  suggestiveness  of  the 
medium's  words  and  manner,  and  solemnly  de- 
clared that  they  could  see  a  "  spirit  "  hovering 
about  him.  One  lady,  whose  integrity  I  could 
not  doubt,  insisted  that  she  saw  two  "  spirits," 
which  she  identified  as  her  dead  husband  and 
brother. 

Undoubtedly,  therefore,  it  is  proper  to  assume 
that  when,  in  the  instances  cited  at  the  beginning 
of  this  chapter.  Professor  Lombroso,  sitting  with 
Eusapia  Paladino,  saw  a  huge  wardrobe  advance 
to  attack  him;  and  when  Lords  Crawford  and 
Dunraven  saw  the  medium  Home  floating  through 
the  air,  hallucination  rather  than  "  spirit  action  " 
is  the  correct  explanation.  At  all  events,  in 
view  of  the  known  fallibility  of  the  human  senses; 
the  manifold  opportunities  for  fraud  open  to 
mediums;  and  the  fact  that,  with  the  single 
exception  of  Home,  every  medium  subjected  to 
scientific  investigation  has  been  caught  practising 
fraud  at  one  time  or  another,  it  seems  extremely 
[1991 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

rash  to  accept  as  genuine  any  of  the  phenomena  of 
physical  mediumship. 

Still,  it  v/ould  be  incorrect  to  say  that  the 
time  devoted  by  psychical  researchers  to  the 
investigation  of  these  phenomena  has  been  time 
wasted.  They  have  performed  a  necessary  police 
duty  for  society,  and  their  labors,  as  we  shall  see, 
have  been  productive  of  psychological  discoveries 
of  great  practical  importance. 


[200 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   SUBCONSCIOUS 

WHEN  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research 
was  founded,  in  1882,  its  purpose  was  not 
only  to  obtain,  if  possible,  scientifically  accept- 
able proof  of  the  survival  of  human  personality 
after  bodily  death,  but  also  to  study  the  nature 
of  personality  in  its  mundane  aspects,  with  a 
view  to  securing  greater  insight  into  the  powers 
and  possibilities  of  man  here  on  earth. 

In  this  latter  quest  it  has  been  eminently 
successful,  and  thanks  to  its  labors  our  knowledge 
of  ourselves  has  been  increased  a  thousandfold. 
As  has  been  shown,  phenomena  hitherto  regarded 
as  mysterious  and  "  supernatural  "  —  such  as  ap- 
paritions, clairvoyance,  crystal-gazing,  etc.  — 
have  been  definitely  explained  on  a  purely  natural- 
istic basis;  and,  as  was  said  at  the  close  of  the 
last  chapter,  in  addition  to  naturalizing  the  su- 
pernatural, psychical  researchers  have  made,  or 
[2011 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

have  assisted  in  making,  discoveries  of  great 
practical  utility,  and  having  a  profound  bearing 
on  affairs  of  everyday  life. 

Among  these,  none  is  of  more  importance  than 
the  discovery  of  the  "  subconscious."  This 
term,  which  was  almost  unheard  of  a  few  years 
ago,  is  nowadays  used  by  psychologists  in  a  variety 
of  ways,  but  it  may  be  broadly  defined  as  in- 
cluding an  extensive  range  of  mental  processes 
and  phenomena  that  occur  beneath  the  surface 
of  our  ordinary  consciousness.  Subconscious 
mental  action,  in  fact,  has  a  constant,  unceasing 
part  in  our  lives.  It  is  in  evidence  in  such  com- 
monplace acts  as  walking,  talking,  writing,  play- 
ing the  piano,  handling  a  tool,  a  tennis  racket, 
or  a  baseball  bat. 

There  was  a  time,  in  the  experience  of  all  of  us, 
when  we  could  do  none  of  these  things,  but  had 
to  learn  them  by  conscious  effort.  Little  by 
little,  as  we  acquired  more  skill,  the  element  of 
consciousness  became  less  and  less,  until  at  last 
we  could  execute  them  in  a  seemingly  automatic 
manner,  as  in  the  fashion  of  the  piano  player  de- 
scribed by  Miss  Cobbe: 

[2021 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

"  Two  different  lines  of  hieroglyphics  have  to  be 
read  at  once,  and  the  right  hand  has  to  be  guided 
to  attend  to  one  of  them,  the  left  to  the  other. 
All  the  fingers  have  the  work  assigned  as  quickly 
as  they  can  move.  The  mind,  or  something  which 
does  duty  as  mind,  interprets  scores  of  A  sharps, 
and  B  flats,  and  C  naturals  into  black  ivory  keys 
and  white  ones,  crotchets,  and  quavers,  and  demi- 
quavers,  rests,  and  all  the  mysteries  of  music. 
The  feet  are  not  idle,  but  have  something  to  do 
with  the  pedals.  And  all  this  time  the  performer, 
the  conscious  performer,  is  in  a  seventh  heaven  of 
artistic  rapture  at  the  results  of  all  this  tremendous 
business,  or  perchance  lost  in  a  flirtation  with  the 
individual  who  turns  the  leaves  of  the  music  book, 
and  is  justly  persuaded  she  is  giving  him  the  whole 
of  her  soul." 

The  subconscious  is  thus  a  sort  of  reservoir  in 
which  are  stored  up,  available  for  future  use,  the 
things  learned  through  education  and  experience; 
and  it  also  has  a  dynamic  power  that  enables  it  to 
supplement,  economize,  and  enlarge  the  operations 
of  the  upper  consciousness.  Ordinarily  we  fail  to 
appreciate  what  we  owe  to  this  hidden  servitor, 
[2031 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

for  the  reason  that  its  workings  are  so  smooth,  so 
unobtrusive,  as  to  pass  quite  unnoticed.  Yet 
abundant  evidence  has  been  secured  to  demon- 
strate not  simply  the  fact  of  its  existence,  but  the 
more  significant  fact  that  it  is  never  at  rest,  but 
is  perpetually  laboring  in  our  behalf. 

Even  when  our  consciousness  is  for  the  mo- 
ment completely  in  abeyance  —  as  when  we  are 
asleep  —  the  subconscious  continues  operant. 
Many  of  my  readers  have  doubtless  had  the  ex- 
perience of  vainly  endeavoring  for  hours,  perhaps 
for  days,  to  solve  some  important  problem,  and 
then  awaking  one  morning  with  a  luminously 
clear  idea  of  its  correct  solution.  While  they 
slept,  their  subconsciousness  had  been  at  work 
disentangling  the  threads  of  their  conscious  rea- 
soning, stripping  away  and  discarding  unessentials, 
and  finally  presenting  them  with,  so  to  speak,  a 
ready-made  understanding  of  that  which  had 
previously  been  so  perplexing  to  them. 

In  all  such  cases  the  action  of  the  subconscious 

is  more  vividly  evident  when,  as  often  happens, 

the  desired  sQlution  is  gained  during  sleep  itself, 

in  the  form  of  a  dream.    An  excellent  example  is 

[2041 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

found  in  an  episode  narrated  by  a  business  man, 
who  says: 

"  I  had  been  bothered  since  September  with  an 
error  in  my  cash  account  for  that  month,  and, 
despite  many  hours'  examination,  it  defied  all 
my  efforts,  and  I  almost  gave  it  up  as  hopeless. 
It  had  been  the  subject  of  my  waking  thoughts 
for  many  nights,  and  had  occupied  a  large  portion 
of  my  leisure  hours.  Matters  remained  thus  un- 
settled until  the  eleventh  of  December.  On  this 
night  I  had  not,  to  my  knowledge,  once  thought 
of  the  subject,  but  I  had  not  been  long  in  bed  and 
asleep,  when  my  brain  was  as  busy  with  the 
books  as  though  I  had  been  at  my  desk. 

"  The  cash  book,  banker's  pass  books,  etc.,  etc., 
appeared  before  me;  and,  without  any  apparent 
trouble,  I  almost  immediately  discovered  the 
cause  of  the  mistakes,  which  had  arisen  out  of  a 
complicated  cross  entry.  I  perfectly  recollect 
having  taken  a  slip  of  paper  in  my  dream,  and 
made  such  a  memorandum  as  would  enable  me  to 
correct  the  error  at  some  leisure  time;  and,  having 
done  this,  that  the  whole  of  the  circumstances  had 
passed  from  my  mind. 

[2051 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

**  When  I  awoke  in  the  morning  I  had  not  the 
slightest  recollection  of  my  dream,  nor  did  it 
once  occur  to  me  throughout  the  day,  although 
I  had  the  very  books  before  me  on  which  I 
had  apparently  been  engaged  in  my  sleep.  When 
I  returned  home  in  the  afternoon,  as  I  did  early, 
for  the  purpose  of  dressing,  and  proceeded  to 
shave,  I  took  up  a  piece  of  paper  from  my  dress- 
ing table  to  wipe  my  razor,  and  you  may  imagine 
my  surprise  at  finding  thereon  the  very  memoran- 
dum I  fancied  I  had  made  during  the  previous 
night.  The  eflFect  on  me  was  such  that  I  returned 
to  our  oflBce  and  turned  to  the  cash  book,  when  I 
found  that  I  had  really,  while  asleep,  detected 
the  error  which  I  could  not  detect  in  my  waking 
hours,  and  had  actually  jotted  it  down  at  the 
time. 

"  I  have  no  recollection  whatever  as  to  where  I 
obtained  the  paper  and  pencil  with  which  I  made 
the  memorandum.  It  certainly  must  have  been 
written  in  the  dark,  and  in  my  bedroom,  as  I 
found  both  paper  and  pencil  there  the  following 
afternoon.  The  pencil  was  not  one  which  I  am  in 
the  habit  of  carrying,  and  my  impression  is  that 
[  206  1 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

I  must  either  have  found  it  in  the  room,  or  gone 
down-stairs  for  it."  ^ 

Illustrative  of  the  same  subconscious  mechan- 
ism, and  doubly  interesting  because  of  the  light 
it  throws  on  the  true  nature  of  many  dreams  fre- 
quently regarded  as  supernatural,  is  a  singular 
experience  that  once  befell  Professor  H.  V.  Hil- 
precht,  the  well-known  archaeologist  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania. 

At  the  time.  Professor  Hilprecht  was  trying  to 
decipher  the  inscriptions  on  two  small  fragments 
of  agate  from  the  temple  of  Bel  in  ancient  Baby- 
lonia, and  believed  by  him  to  be  portions  of  the 
finger  rings  of  some  wealthy  Babylonian.  He  had 
already  published  a  preliminary  report  on  the 
collection  of  which  they  formed  a  part,  but, 
despite  weeks  of  earnest  effort,  had  utterly  failed 
to  get  at  the  meaning  of  the  words  inscribed  on 
them. 

One  Saturday  night,  after  working  on  the  frag- 
ments until  nearly  twelve  o'clock  without  any 
satisfactory   result,  he  went  to  bed  weary  and 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  viii, 
pp.    394-395. 

[2071 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

exhausted,  and  was  soon  in  a  deep  sleep.  He 
then  dreamed  that  he  was  transported  to  the 
temple  of  Bel,  where  a  venerable  priest,  whose 
dress  showed  that  he  belonged  to  a  pre-Christian 
epoch,  conducted  him  into  the  treasure  chamber  of 
the  temple.  It  was  a  small,  low  room,  without 
windows,  and  contained  a  large  wooden  chest, 
around  which  were  scattered  pieces  of  agate  and 
other  valuable  stones.  While  Professor  Hilprecht 
stood  looking  at  these,  the  priest  said  to  him: 

"  The  two  fragments  which  you  have  published 
separately  upon  pages  22  and  26  belong  together, 
are  not  finger  rings,  and  their  history  is  as  fol- 
lows: 

"  King  Kurigalzu  [who  reigned  in  Babylonia 
about  1300  B.  c],  once  sent  to  the  temple  of  Bel, 
among  other  articles  of  agate  and  lapis  lazuli, 
an  inscribed  votive  cylinder  of  agate.  Then  we 
priests  suddenly  received  the  command  to  make 
for  the  statue  of  the  god  Ninib  a  pair  of  earrings 
of  agate.  We  were  in  great  dismay,  since  there 
was  no  agate  at  hand  as  raw  material.  In  order 
to  execute  the  command,  there  was  nothing  for 
us  to  do  but  cut  the  votive  cylinder  into  three 
[208] 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

parts,  making  three  rings,  each  of  which  contained 
a  portion  of  the  original  inscription. 

"The  first  two  rings  served  as  earrmgs  for  the 
statue  of  the  god;  the  two  fragments  which  have 
given  you  so  much  trouble  are  portions  of  them. 
K  you  will  put  the  two  together  you  will  have 
confirmation  of  my  words.  But  the  third  ring 
you  have  not  yet  found  in  the  course  of  your 
excavations,  and  you  never  will  find  it." 

With  this  the  priest  disappeared,  and  the  dream 
came  to  an  end.  In  the  morning,  impressed  with 
its  coherence  and  vividness,  Professor  Hilprecht 
again  attacked  the  troublesome  fragments,  put 
them  together  as  directed,  and,  by  making  the 
proper  guesses  for  the  missing  middle  portion, 
readily  deciphered  the  full  inscription :  "  To  the 
god  Ninib,  son  of  Bel,  his  lord,  has  Kurigalzu, 
pontifex  of  Bel,  presented  this."  ^ 

Nor  are  the  intellectual  achievements  of  the 
subconscious  during  sleep  confined  to  the  solution 
of  problems  that  have  been  vexing  the  upper 
consciousness.     It  has  a  highly  original,  creative 

^  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  xii, 
pp.  14-15. 

[209] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

power  of  its  own.  Thus  the  composer  Tartini 
dreamed  one  night  that  he  heard  the  devil  play- 
ing a  wonderful  sonata,  and,  remembering  it  on 
awaking,  was  able  to  set  it  down  on  paper,  and 
thereby  put  to  his  credit  one  of  the  finest  pieces 
of  music  that  bears  his  name.  Coleridge's  "  Kubla 
Khan "  was  another  dream  composition;  and, 
indeed,  a  long  list  of  masterpieces  in  music,  art, 
and  literature,  originating  through  subconscious 
mental  action  in  sleep,  might  be  drawn  up. 

A  typical  case  was  recently  communicated  to 
me  by  a  well-known  Pacific  Coast  architect,  Mr. 
B.  J.  S.  Cahill.  He  had  been  commissioned  to 
design  a  twenty-six-story  oflSce  building,  to  be 
erected  in  Portland,  Oregon,  and  he  determined, 
if  possible,  to  plan  one  that  would  be  a  real  con- 
tribution towards  the  solution  of  some  of  the  most 
difiicult  problems  of  modern  commercial  archi- 
tecture. For  weeks  Mr.  Cahill  labored  hard  to 
devise  a  building  that  would  unite  a  maximum 
of  beauty,  solidity,  and  capacity  with  an  abun- 
dance, and  as  nearly  as  possible  an  equality,  of 
light  and  air  for  the  many  oflSces  it  was  to  contain. 
The  structure  he  ultimately  conceived  was  cer- 
[210] 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

tainly  novel,  and  differed  conspicuously  from  the 
ordinary  four-sided  oflBce  building,  with  its  inner 
offices  lighted  from  a  court. 

His  plan  called  for  the  construction  of  a  build- 
ing shaped  much  like  a  St.  Andrew's  cross,  or  like 
a  square  with  a  triangle  cut  out  of  each  side.  In 
this  way  the  need  for  an  inner  court  was  com- 
pletely obviated,  and  the  only  poorly  ventilated 
and  dimly  lighted  portion  of  the  building  would 
be  its  central  "  core."  Here  the  elevators  and 
stairs  were  to  be  located. 

According  to  the  architect's  own  statement, 
this  plan  —  which  has  been  highly  praised  by  so 
eminent  a  critic  as  Mr.  Montgomery  Schuyler  — 
was  born  in  his  mind  while  he  slept.  One  night 
he  saw  in  a  dream  a  building  shaped  in  this  fashion, 
and  knew  that  his  problem  was  solved.  He  tells 
me  that  on  awaking  he  made  two  rough  sketches 
of  the  plan  in  a  pocket  note-book  —  one  showing 
the  general  design,  the  other  indicating  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  building  when  completed. 

Perhaps  no  one  has  ever  been  more  favored  in 
this  same  way  than  that  remarkable  man  of 
genius,  the  late  Robert  Louis  Stevenson.  The 
[211] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

plots  for  many  of  Stevenson's  best  stories  — 
including  the  marvelous  "  Doctor  Jekyll  and  Mr. 
Hyde  "  —  came  to  him  in  dreams,  as  he  himself 
has  related  in  a  delightful  autobiographical  essay, 
in  which,  with  characteristic  whimsicality,  he 
personifies  his  subconscious  ideas  as  "  Brownies  " 
and  "  little  people." 

"  This  dreamer,  like  many  other  persons,"  he 
says,  "  has  encountered  some  trifling  vicissitudes 
of  fortune.  When  the  bank  begins  to  send  letters, 
and  the  butcher  to  linger  at  the  back  gates,  he 
sets  to  belaboring  his  brains  after  a  story,  for  that 
is  his  readiest  money  winner;  and  behold!  at 
once  the  little  people  begin  to  bestir  themselves 
in  the  same  quest,  and  labor  all  night  long,  and 
all  night  long  set  before  him  truncheons  of  tales 
upon  their  lighted  theater.  No  fear  of  his  being 
frightened  now;  the  flying  heart  and  the  frozen 
scalp  are  things  bygone;  applause,  growing  ap- 
plause, growing  interest,  growing  exultation  in  his 
own  cleverness  —  for  he  takes  all  the  credit  — 
and  at  last  a  jubilant  leap  to  wakefulness,  with  the 
cry:  '  I  have  it,  that'll  do! '  upon  his  lips;  with 
such  and  similar  emotions  he  sits  at  these  noc- 
[2121 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

turnal  dreams,  with  such  outbreaks,  like  Claudius 
in  the  play,  he  scatters  the  performance  in  the 
midst. 

"  Often  enough  the  waking  is  a  disappoint- 
ment; he  has  been  too  deep  asleep,  as  I  explain 
the  thing;  drowsiness  has  gained  his  little  peo- 
ple; they  have  gone  stumbling  and  maundering 
through  their  parts;  and  the  play,  to  the  wakened 
mind,  is  seen  to  be  a  tissue  of  absurdities.  And 
yet  how  often  have  these  sleepless  Brownies  done 
him  honest  service,  and  given  him,  as  he  sat  idly 
taking  his  pleasure  in  the  boxes,  better  tales  than 
he  could  fashion  for  himself. 

"  The  more  I  think  of  it,"  Stevenson  continues, 
*'  the  more  I  am  moved  to  press  upon  the  world 
my  question:  '  Who  are  the  little  people.'*  '  They 
are  near  connections  of  the  dreamer's,  beyond 
doubt;  they  share  in  his  financial  worries,  and 
have  an  eye  to  the  bank  book;  they  share  plainly 
in  his  training;  they  have  plainly  learned,  like 
him,  to  build  the  scheme  of  a  considerable  story, 
and  to  arrange  emotion  in  progressive  order; 
only  I  think  they  have  more  talent;  and  one  thing 
is  beyond  doubt  —  they  can  tell  him  a  story  piece 
[2131 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

by  piece,  like  a  serial,  and  keep  him  all  the  while 
in  ignorance  of  where  they  aim. 

"  That  part  of  my  work  which  is  done  while  I 
am  sleeping  is  the  Brownies'  part  beyond  con- 
tention; but  that  which  is  done  when  I  am  up  and 
about  is  by  no  means  necessarily  mine,  since  all 
goes  to  show  the  Brownies  have  a  hand  in  it  even 
then."  1 

It  is  worth  noting  that  facts  like  these  have 
recently  led  to  a  novel  theory  explanatory  of 
what  is  known  as  "  genius."  Instead  of  adopt- 
ing the  Lombrosian  doctrine,  and  regarding  the 
man  of  genius  as  a  kind  of  transcendental  degen- 
erate, this  latest  theory  affirms  that  he  is  what 
he  is  by  reason  of  enjoying  a  readier  commu- 
nication than  most  men  possess  between  the 
conscious  and  subconscious  portions  of  his  mind. 
Such  a  view  has  the  further  virtue  of  being  com- 
pletely in  accord  with  the  familiar  definition  of 
genius  as  an  infinite   capacity  for  hard  work. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  must  be  evident 
that  the  contents  of  the  subconscious  are  made 

1  Quoted  from  the  "  Chapter  on  Dreams,"  in  R.  L.  Steven- 
son's "  Across  the  Plains." 

[  214  1 


THE   SUBCONSCIOUS 

up  in  large  measure  of  knowledge  gained  at  one 
time  or  another  by  conscious  endeavor  and 
thought.  The  man  who  thinks  hard  consciously, 
is  certain  to  have  a  richer  fund  of  subconscious 
information  at  his  disposal  than  the  one  whose 
conscious  thinking  is  of  the  idle,  futile,  scatter- 
brained sort.  All  successful  men,  whether  a 
Milton  or  a  Rockefeller,  a  Shakespeare  or  a 
Morgan,  are  men  who  have  developed  their  sub- 
conscious faculties  by  laborious  application  of 
their  conscious  powers  in  the  routine  of  daily 
life. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  has  also  to  be  observed 
that  knowledge  is  often  obtained  subconsciously 
without  passing  through  any  preliminary  stage 
of  conscious  attention  and  awareness;  and  that, 
by  a  reversal  of  the  usual  process,  the  conscious 
frequently  acquires  from  the  subconscious  infor- 
mation of  which  it  would  otherwise  be  ignorant. 

I  have  previously  alluded  to  this  interesting  and 
most  important  fact  in  my  discussion  of  telepathy, 
clairvoyance,  crystal-gazing,  and  kindred  prob- 
lems in  psychical  research.  As  we  then  saw,  the 
subconscious  has  a  certain  eerie  faculty  of  impart- 
[2151 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

ing  its  information  to  the  upper  consciousness  in 
the  way  of  hallucinations,  indicative  at  times  of 
thought  transference  from  mind  to  mind,  or,  more 
commonly,  originating  merely  from  unnoticed 
impressions  of  direct,  personal  experience. 

It  cannot  be  too  firmly  borne  in  mind  that  every 
day  of  our  lives  we  see  and  hear  and  feel  more 
than  we  realize;  that  these  unobserved  sights 
and  sounds  and  sensations  may,  nevertheless,  be 
subconsciously  registered  in  our  minds;  and  that 
they  may  soon  or  late  be  projected  above  the 
threshold  of  consciousness  in  a  form  astonishing, 
puzzling,  and  perhaps  annoying  to  us,  as  in  the 
case  of  a  strange  experience  of  a  young  New  York 
newspaper  man. 

It  was  his  business  to  edit  for  publication  in  a 
number  of  country  newspapers  the  dispatches 
sent  in  by  a  telegraphic  news  agency.  He  had 
been  thus  engaged  for  perhaps  a  year  when  he 
noticed,  greatly  to  his  dismay,  that  he  was  re- 
peatedly omitting  items  which  he  believed,  on 
reading  them  in  the  telegraphic  copy,  to  be  "  old 
news,"  but  which  were  printed  with  more  or  less 
prominence  in  the  next  morning's  issues  of  other 
[2161 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

newspapers.  This  occurred  so  often  that  he  began 
to  tremble  for  his  position,  and  set  himself  ear- 
nestly to  solve  the  mystery. 

Luckily  he  had  some  acquaintance  with  psy- 
chology, and  knew  that  his  trouble  must  be  due 
to  a  faulty  identification  of  subconscious  with 
conscious  impressions.  But  why  was  it,  he  asked 
himself,  that  on  certain  nights  he  would  be  quite 
free  from  such  errors  of  judgment,  while  on  others 
he  might  omit,  or  be  strongly  tempted  to  omit, 
on  the  ground  of  supposed  previous  publication, 
half  a  dozen  items  of  real  news  value?  The  truth 
dawned  on  him  one  evening  as  he  was  sitting  down 
to  begin  work. 

On  his  desk  lay  a  heap  of  envelopes  containing 
the  dispatches  that  had  come  from  the  news  agency 
before  his  arrival  at  the  newspaper  office.  These 
should  already  have  been  opened  by  an  office 
boy,  but  that  night  he  had  been  busy  with  some- 
thing else.  Mechanically,  the  editor  himself  tore 
open  the  envelopes,  smoothed  out  their  contents, 
and,  without  reading  them,  made  a  neat  pile  of 
the  typewritten  sheets,  preparatory  to  going 
through   them. 

[217] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

He  had  not  been  working  an  hour  when  he  came 
to  a  dispatch,  which  he  tossed  aside,  with  the 
muttered  comment,  "  That's  an  old  story,  sure. 
I've  read  it  somewhere  before." 

Then,  remembering  the  mistakes  he  had  been 
making,  he  hesitated,  picked  it  up,  and  read  it 
carefully.  Every  word  in  it  seemed  familiar. 
But  where  could  he  have  read  it?  In  the  evening 
papers?  He  went  through  them  one  by  one, 
without  result.  Then  it  suddenly  occurred  to 
him  that  possibly,  in  opening  the  dispatches,  he 
had,  without  being  aware  of  it,  glanced  at  this 
particular  item,  and  had  obtained  a  subconscious 
knowledge  of  it,  which  was  now  welling  up  con- 
fusedly as  a  conscious  memory. 

To  test  this  theory,  he  directed  the  office  boy 
to  open  the  dispatches  without  fail  for  the  next 
few  nights.  On  none  of  these  did  he  suffer  from 
memory  confusion. 

Possibly,  if  he  had  analyzed  the  matter  further, 
he  would  have  found  that  the  news  items  which 
had  caught  his  eye  while  smoothing  out  the  dis- 
patch sheets  related  to  subjects  of  some  special 
interest  to  him.  For  just  as  one's  conscious  at- 
[218] 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

tention  is  arrested  by  that  which  is  particularly 
interesting,  so  does  the  subconscious  select  for 
presentation  to  the  upper  consciousness  informa- 
tion of  temporary  or  habitual  interest  and  sig- 
nificance. 

Sometimes,  too,  there  is  involved  a  harking 
back  to  interests  of  an  earlier  period  of  life.  A 
simple  but  instructive  illustration  of  this  is  found 
in  a  little  incident  that  occurred  to  Doctor  Rich- 
ard Hodgson  while  on  a  visit  to  England.  It  may 
best  be  reported  in  his  own  words:  ^ 

"  Yesterday  morning  (September  13,  1895), 
just  after  breakfast,  I  was  strolling  alone  along 
one  of  the  garden  paths  of  Leckliampton  House, 
Cambridge,  repeating  aloud  to  myself  the  verses 
of  a  poem.  I  became  temporarily  oblivious  to 
my  garden  surroundings,  and  regained  my  con- 
sciousness of  them  suddenly,  to  find  myself  brought 
to  a  stand,  in  a  stooping  position,  gazing  intently 
at  a  five-leaved  clover.  On  careful  examination, 
I  found  about  a  dozen  specimens  of  five-leaved 
clover,  as  well  as  several  specimens  of  four-leaved 

^  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  xi, 
p.  415. 

[219] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

clover,  all  of  which  probably  came  from  the  same 
root. 

"  Several  years  ago  I  was  interested  in  getting 
extra-leaved  clovers,  but  I  have  not  for  years 
made  any  active  search  for  them,  though  occa- 
sionally my  conscious  attention,  as  I  walked  along, 
has  been  given  to  appearances  of  four-leaved 
clover,  which  proved,  on  examination,  to  be  de- 
ceptive. The  peculiarity  of  yesterday's  '  find  ' 
was  that  I  discovered  myself,  with  a  sort  of  shock, 
standing  still  and  stooping  down,  and  afterward 
realized  that  a  five-leaved  clover  was  directly 
under  my  eyes." 

Compare  with  this  an  incident  reported  by  an 
English  clergyman,  the  Reverend  P.  H.  Newnham. 
We  find  in  it  exactly  the  same  element  of  selective 
subconscious  attention,  accompanied,  however, 
by  an  auditory  hallucination  as  a  means  of  notify- 
ing the  upper  consciousness  of  the  fact  subcon- 
sciously observed. 

"  I  was  visiting  friends  at  Tunbridge  Wells," 

says  Mr.  Newnham,  "  and  went  out  one  evening, 

entomologizing.    As  I  crossed  a  stile  into  a  field, 

on  my  way  to  a  neighboring  wood,  a  voice  said 

[220] 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

distinctly  in  my  right  ear:  '  You'll  find  "  Cha- 
onia  "  on  that  oak.'  This  was  a  very  scarce  moth, 
which  I  had  never  seen  before,  and  which  most 
assuredly  I  had  never  consciously  thought  of 
seeing.  There  were  several  oaks  in  the  field,  but 
I  instinctively  walked  up  to  one,  straight  to  the 
off  side  of  it,  and  there  was  the  moth  indicated."  ^ 
The  psychological  explanation  of  this  is  simple 
enough,  and  is  equally  applicable  to  similar,  if 
more  sensational,  hallucinations  widely  heralded 
as  of  supernatural  character.  It  is  manifestly 
absurd  to  suppose  that  a  "  spirit  "  announced  to 
the  entomologizing  clergyman  the  presence  of  the 
rare  and  greatly  sought-after  moth  which  it  was 
his  good  fortune  to  capture.  But  it  is  not  at  all 
absurd  to  suggest  that  quite  likely,  although  he 
had  consciously  forgotten  all  about  it,  he  had  at 
some  time  seen  Chaonia,  or  an  entomological  text- 
book picture  of  Chaonia;  that  he  had  subcon- 
ciously  caught  a  glimpse  of  it,  fluttering  across 
the  field  and  settling  on  the  oak,  and  that  his  sub- 
conscious recognition  of  its  identity  had  set  in 

^  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  xi, 
p.    411. 

[221] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

motion  the  proper  mental  mechanism  to  notify 
his  upper  consciousness  of  a  fact  in  which  it  would 
naturally  be  much  interested. 

There  may  also  be  a  subconscious  intensifica- 
tion, or  "  hypersesthesia,"  of  other  senses  than  that 
of  sight.  In  all  probability  hypersesthesia  of  the 
sense  of  hearing  is  suflScient  to  account  for  the 
dramatic  central  incident  in  the  following  story, 
told  by  a  lady  whose  identity  I  am  unable  to 
reveal : 

"  I  was  living  one  summer  in  a  little  mining 
camp  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Our  house,  a 
frame  building,  was  some  little  distance  from  any 
other,  at  the  top  of  a  steep  hill;  the  only  disad- 
vantage of  this  being  the  additional  difficulty  of 
getting  water,  which  was  an  expensive  com- 
modity in  the  camp,  as  the  adjacent  mines  had 
drained  most  of  the  wells. 

"  The  house  contained  six  rooms,  all  opening 
one  out  of  another,  my  own  room,  with  a  dressing 
closet  beyond,  where  my  child  slept,  being  at  one 
end,  and  the  front  porch,  which  overlooked  the 
valley,  at  the  other. 

"  One  evening,  after  my  little  girl  was  asleep, 
[222] 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

I  lit  a  tiny  night  lamp,  always  left  burning  on  a 
bracket  in  her  room;  and,  leaving  all  doors  and 
windows  open,  on  account  of  the  intense  heat, 
went  to  sit  on  the  front  porch.  I  may  have  sat 
there  half  an  hour,  when  my  attention  was  caught 
by  a  great  blazing  light  in  the  direction  of  the 
farthest  houses.  It  appeared  evident  that  one  at 
least  had  taken  fire,  and  the  difficulty  of  getting 
water,  and  the  hope  that  no  children  were  in 
danger,  flashed  through  my  mind. 

"  While  watching  the  rapidly  growing  glare,  I 
heard  a  faint,  crackling  sound  in  my  own  house. 
It  would  not  have  disturbed  me  at  any  other  time, 
as  I  only  supposed  that  some  smouldering  piece 
of  cedar  in  the  kitchen  stove  had  blazed  up. 
But,  with  the  present  thought  of  fire  in  my  mind, 
I  went  into  the  kitchen  to  look,  and,  glancing 
through  the  open  doors  as  I  passed,  saw  a  volume 
of  flame  and  smoke  pouring  from  the  child's  room 
into  mine. 

"  Thank  God  it  was  still  possible  to  rush  through 

and  save  her;   and  I  carried  her  out  in  a  blanket 

to  prevent  the  scorch,   for  the  room  was   only 

burning  at  one  end;  the  side  where  the  bed  stood, 

[223] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

though  fearfully  hot  and  suffocating,  was  not  yet 
on  fire,  and,  thanks  to  the  timely  warning,  the 
water  left  in  the  barrels  proved  just  enough  to 
extinguish  the  flames  before  very  much  was  des- 
troyed. 

"  After  all  was  quiet,  I  went  back  to  the  porch 
to  look  at  that  other  burning  house,  feeling  so 
thankful  that  my  child  was  safe,  and  wondering 
if  others  were,  also.  But  all  was  dark,  and  when  I 
came  to  make  inquiry  next  day,  nothing  was 
known  in  the  camp  of  any  such  fire.  Had  it  not 
been  for  my  strange  vision  of  it,  which  must  have 
lasted  fully  ten  minutes,  I  feel  sure  that  my  little 
girl  would  have  been  burned  to  death."  ^ 

There  is  a  possibility,  though  only  a  possibility, 
that  telepathy  between  mother  and  child  may 
have  had  part  in  the  production  of  this  helpful 
hallucination.  But  hypersesthesia  of  the  sense  of 
hearing  seems  to  afford  the  likelier  explanation, 
as  also  in  numerous  well-authenticated  instances, 
in  which  railroad  men,  obeying  an  unaccountable 
impulse   or   hallucinatory   monition,   have   taken 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  xi, 
pp.    418-419. 

[224] 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

action  averting  disastrous  wrecks.  A  single  illus- 
trative example  must  suffice,  a  case  called  to  the 
attention  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research 
by  Mr.  WiHiam  H.  Wyman,  of  Dunkirk,  N.  Y. : 

"  Some  years  ago  my  brother  was  employed 
on,  and  had  charge  as  conductor  and  engineer  of, 
a  work  train  on  the  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan 
Southern  Railway,  running  between  Buffalo  and 
Erie.  I  often  went  with  him  to  the  gravel  bank, 
where  he  had  his  headquarters,  and  returned  on 
his  train  with  him. 

"  On  one  occasion  I  was  with  him,  and  after 
the  train  of  cars  was  loaded,  we  went  together 
to  the  telegraph  office  to  see  if  there  were  any 
orders,  and  to  find  out  if  the  trains  were  on  time, 
as  we  had  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  all  regular 
trains.  After  looking  over  the  train  reports,  and 
finding  them  all  on  time,  we  started  for  Buffalo. 

"As  we  approached  Westfield  station,  running 
about  twelve  miles  per  hour,  and  when  within 
about  one  mile  of  a  long  curve  in  the  line,  my 
brother  all  of  a  sudden  shut  off  the  steam,  and, 
quickly  stepping  over  to  the  fireman's  side  of  the 
engine,  he  looked  out  of  the  cab  window,  and  then 
[225] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN   THE   PSYCHICAL 

to  the  rear  of  his  train.  Not  discovering  anything 
wrong,  he  put  on  steam,  but  almost  immediately 
again  shut  it  off,  and  gave  the  signal  for  brakes, 
and  stopped. 

"  After  inspecting  the  engine  and  train,  and 
finding  nothing  wrong,  he  seemed  very  much 
excited,  and  for  a  short  time  he  acted  as  if  he  did 
not  know  where  he  was  or  what  to  do.  I  asked 
what  was  the  matter.  He  replied  that  he  did  not 
know;  then,  after  looking  at  his  watch  and  orders, 
he  said  that  he  felt  that  there  was  some  trouble 
on  the  line  of  the  road.  I  suggested  that  he  had 
better  run  his  train  to  the  station  and  find  out. 
He  then  ordered  his  flagman  to  go  ahead  around 
the  curve,  which  was  just  ahead  of  us,  and  he 
would  follow  with  the  train. 

"  The  flagman  started  and  had  barely  time  to 
flag  an  extra  express  train,  with  the  general  super- 
intendent and  others  on  board,  coming  full  forty 
miles  an  hour.  The  superintendent  inquired  what 
he  was  doing  there,  and  if  he  did  not  receive 
orders  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  the  extra.  My 
brother  told  him  that  he  had  not  received  orders, 
and  did  not  know  of  any  extra  train  coming;  that 
[2261 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

we  had  both  examined  the  train  reports  before 
leaving  the  station.  The  train  was  then  backed 
to  the  station,  where  it  was  found  that  no  orders 
had  been  given."  ^ 

Incidents  such  as  this  are  of  not  infrequent 
occurrence.  By  the  superstitious  they  are  re- 
garded as  weird  and  uncanny,  and  savoring  of  the 
spiritistic.  In  reahty  they  are  only  exceptional 
exemplifications  of  a  process  which  is  ceaselessly 
taking  place  in  all  of  us.  There  is  no  one  who 
does  not,  every  day,  perform  acts  which  he  can- 
not consciously  account  for,  and  which,  if  closely 
inquired  into,  would  be  found  similarly  to  take 
their  rise  in  unnoticed  subconscious  impressions. 
For  the  matter  of  that,  it  is  possible  to  train  one- 
self to  subconscious  attention  to  selected  impres- 
sions, even  in  sleep. 

A  familiar  illustration  is  the  mother  who,  un- 
disturbed by  other  sounds,  awakens  at  the  least 
cry  of  her  infant.  The  same  phenomenon  is  ob- 
servable in  the  case  of  the  conscientious  medical 
nurse,  who,  no  matter  how  profound  her  sleep, 

'  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  xi, 
p.  416. 

[2271 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

responds  instantly  to  any  movement  by  her 
patient.  And,  in  the  course  of  conversation  not 
long  ago,  a  physician  said  to  me: 

"  As  you  know,  my  house  is  on  a  car  line,  and, 
besides  the  cars,  there  is  much  automobile  and 
carriage  traffic  on  my  street  for  a  large  part  of 
the  night.  Nothing  of  this  breaks  my  rest.  I 
sleep  so  soundly  that  a  thunderstorm  does  not 
arouse  me.  Yet  let  the  telephone  bell  begin  to 
ring,  and  I  am  out  of  bed  and  have  the  receiver 
at  my  ear  before  the  bell  has  ceased  ringing." 

I  have  myself,  like  a  good  many  other  people, 
found  it  possible  to  make  the  subconscious  do  the 
work  of  an  alarm  clock.  That  is  to  say,  if,  on 
going  to  bed,  I  mentally  determine  to  wake  at  a 
certain  hour,  I  invariably  do  so,  and  this  although 
I  am  one  of  the  deepest  of  sleepers.  It  matters 
not  what  hour  I  select,  nor  how  late  I  retire  the 
previous  night,  the  mental  sentinel  whom  I  have 
placed  on  guard  punctually  notifies  me  when 
the  appointed  time  arrives. 

This  goes  to  show,   of  course,   that  the  sub- 
conscious is,  to  a  certain  extent,  at  any  rate,  amen- 
able to  conscious  control   and  direction.     That 
[228] 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

such  control  is  highly  desirable  is  evinced  not 
merely  by  the  facts  reviewed  above,  but  by  others 
which  we  must  next  take  under  consideration 
—  facts  of  altogether  different  import.  For  if, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  subconscious  is  in  many  ways 
a  docile  and  helpful  auxiliary  of  the  upper  con- 
sciousness, it  also  contains  within  itself  dire  pos- 
sibilities of  unhappiness,  suffering,  disease,  and 
even  death. 


229] 


CHAPTER  VII 

DISSOCIATION   AND    DISEASE 

THE  subconscious,  I  repeat,  does  not  always 
exercise  a  helpful  influence;  there  are  times 
when  it  may  impose  upon  us  indescribable 
misery. 

It  is  able  to  do  this  by  virtue  of  the  intimate 
relations  existing  between  the  mind  and  the  body. 
At  this  late  day  it  is  scarcely  necessary  for  me 
to  undertake  to  demonstrate  that  the  state  of 
one's  mind  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  health 
of  one's  body.  What  is  not  so  generally  known, 
and  what  all  of  us  ought  to  know,  is  the  further 
fact  that  many  diseases  are  directly  due  to  dis- 
tressing mental  states,  and  in  such  cases  usually 
to  subconscious  mental  states  —  that  is  to  say, 
to  thoughts  and  emotions  of  which  the  sufferer 
consciously  has  no  knowledge.  The  same  often 
holds  good  even  with  regard  to  maladies  the 
sjTiiptoms  of  which  are  almost  v/holly  if  not  al- 
[  230  ] 


DISSOCIATION  AND   DISEASE 

together  physical,  and  the  causes  of  which  one 
would  naturally  expect  to  find  physical,  likewise. 

Indeed,  ignorance  of  the  tremendous  role  played 
by  the  subconscious  in  the  causation  of  disease, 
has  in  the  past  been  responsible  for  many  medical 
shortcomings.  Nor  is  the  situation  as  yet  much 
improved,  although  it  is  rapidly  improving,  thanks 
chiefly  to  the  labors  of  a  little  group  of  scientific 
investigators  known  as  psychopathologists,  or 
medical  psychologists,  who  have  made  it  their 
special  business  to  ascertain  the  different  ways 
in  which  the  subconscious  may  affect  health  ad- 
versely, and  to  devise  methods  for  coping  with 
mentally  caused  diseases. 

These  men  are  not  "  faith  healers."  They  are 
not  making  any  war  on  medicine.  They  are,  in 
fact,  themselves  physicians,  graduates  of  the 
best  medical  schools,  of  excellent  standing  in  their 
profession,  and  seeking,  above  all  things,  to  in- 
crease the  usefulness  and  precision  of  medical 
science.  Already,  though  their  labors  were  begun 
only  a  few  years  ago,  they  have  effected  numer- 
ous cures  of  a  seemingly  miraculous  character; 
but  always  they  have  effected  them  by  utilizing 
[231] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

natural  laws  which  they  have  discovered  by  the 
rigorous  processes  of  scientific  experiment. 

Of  fundamental  importance  among  these  laws 
is  one  known  as  the  law  of  dissociation.  It  might 
almost  be  called  the  law  of  forgotten  memories, 
for  to  a  large  extent  its  workings  depend  on  the 
interesting  circumstance,  to  which  attention  has 
previously  been  drawn,  that  ideas  which  have 
faded  from  the  conscious  memory  persist  in  the 
subconsciousness.  As  Pierre  Janet,  the  distin- 
guished Frenchman  and  most  eminent  of  living 
psychopathologists,  has  tersely  phrased  it,  "  Noth- 
ing that  goes  into  the  human  mind  is  ever  really 
lost." 

No  matter  how  remote,  past  experiences,  as  I 
have  shown  in  earlier  chapters,  can  be  recovered 
and  recalled  to  mind  by  means  of  crystal-vision, 
automatic  writing,  or  other  psychological  methods 
of  "  tapping  the  subconscious."  Obviously  we 
have  here  no  absolute  loss  of  memory,  but  merely 
a  splitting  off,  or  "  dissociation,"  from  the  field 
of  waking  consciousness. 

Now,  while  the  memories  thus  dissociated  and 
lying  hidden  in  the  subconscious  usually  exercise 
[2321 


DISSOCIATION  AND  DISEASE 

no  appreciable  effect  other  than  in  the  molding 
of  character,  the  enlargement  of  our  store  of 
knowledge,  etc.,  there  are  conditions  under  which, 
in  the  case  of  persons  predisposed  by  circum- 
stances of  heredity  or  environment,  they  may  give 
rise  to  all  manner  of  mental  and  physical  ills. 

A  person,  for  instance,  experiences  a  sudden 
fright.  Time  passes,  the  fright  is  completely  for- 
gotten, or,  at  most,  vaguely  remembered.  But 
one  day  unmistakable,  and  sometimes  exceedingly 
peculiar,  symptoms  of  disease  appear.  The 
victim,  it  may  be,  suffers  from  a  strange  obsession 
or  "  fixed  idea,"  or  from  a  general  "  nervous  break- 
down,'* or  from  an  actual  paralysis  of  some  bodily 
organ,  or  from  the  development  of  abdominal 
or  other  enlargements  resembling  true  organic 
growths. 

Whatever  the  symptoms,  the  mechanism  of 
the  puzzling  malady  is  always  the  same.  There 
has  been  an  abnormal  dissociation.  The  ideas 
connected  with  the  original  shock,  although  sub- 
merged beneath  the  threshold  of  consciousness  — 
in  a  word,  forgotten  —  remain  vividly  alive  in  the 
subconscious,  to  act  as  perpetual  irritants  of  the 
[233] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

nervous  system  and  in  time  to  give  rise  to  the 
appearance  of  the  symptoms  of  which  the  suf- 
erer  complains.  Often,  indeed,  the  dissociation 
is  instantaneous,  and  the  appearance  of  the  dis- 
ease symptoms  equally  rapid. 

In  either  case,  the  resultant  malady  is  purely 
psychical  in  its  origin,  and  can  be  cured  only  by 
psychical,  not  by  physical  means.  What  is  needed 
is  to  get  at  the  dissociated  mental  states  —  the 
forgotten,  disease-creating  memories  —  and  re- 
associate  them  with  the  upper  consciousness,  or 
root  them  out  completely  by  means  of  "  sugges- 
tions "  skillfully  applied. 

This  is  no  fanciful  theory.  It  is  the  soHdest 
kind  of  fact,  repeatedly  tested  and  verified.  Time 
and  again,  patients  pronounced  incurable  by  com- 
petent physicians  have  been  taken  in  hand  by 
the  psychopathologists  and,  once  their  disease 
has  been  definitely  traced  to  some  dissociation, 
have  been  restored  to  perfect  health. 

For  the  matter  of  that,   of  course,   the  same 

thing  has  been  done  to  some  extent  by  Christian 

Science  healers  and  other  irregular  practitioners 

of  "  mental  medicine."     But  the  difference  be- 

[234] 


DISSOCIATION   AND   DISEASE 

tween  all  of  these  and  the  psychopathologists  is 
just  this  —  that  the  former  apply  the  healing 
power  of  suggestion  to  all  sorts  of  diseases,  and 
without  any  adequate  understanding  of  its  laws 
and  limitations,  whereas  the  psychopathologists 
recognize  that  it  is  only  one  of  several  valuable 
medical  methods,  and  that  it  is  legitimately  ap- 
plicable only  to  certain  maladies. 

Experience  has  taught  them,  too,  that  even 
within  its  proper  sphere  of  usefulness  it  often  is 
of  therapeutic  value  only  after  a  searching  scien- 
tific examination  of  the  patient's  subconscious- 
ness has  brought  to  light  the  particular  dissociated 
states  which  have  to  be  corrected  before  a  cure 
can  be  wrought. 

Nevertheless,  the  range  of  maladies  susceptible 
of  cure  by  psychopathological  processes  is  mar- 
velously  wide,  and  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  the  discovery  of  the  influence  exercised 
by  the  subconscious  in  the  causation  of  disease 
is  one  of  the  most  vitally  significant  ever  made 
in  the  history  of  medicine. 

The  truth  of  this  may  readily  be  shown  by 
citing  a  few  cases  illustrating  some  of  the  manifold 
[235] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

ways  in  which  dissociation  works  havoc  in  the 
human  organism,  and  the  extreme  ingenuity  dis- 
played by  the  skilled  psychopathologist  in  over- 
coming its  ravages. 

There  was  brought  one  day  to  the  Parisian 
hospital  of  the  Salpetriere,  the  world's  greatest 
center  of  psychopathological  investigation,  a 
woman  of  forty,  designated  in  the  medical  record 
of  her  case  by  the  name  of  Justine.  She  was 
accompanied  by  her  husband,  who  explained  that 
he  wished  Doctor  Janet  to  examine  her  because 
he  feared  that  she  had  become  insane.  And,  in 
fact,  she  presented  the  aspect  of  a  veritable 
maniac.  Her  jet-black  hair  was  flowing  loosely 
over  her  shoulders,  her  eyes  were  fixed  and  glar- 
ing, her  hands  trembling,  the  muscles  of  her  neck 
twitching,  and  she  constantly  made  the  most 
horrible  grimaces.  When  Doctor  Janet  gently 
sought  to  question  her,  she  buried  her  face  in^her 
hands,  and  cried: 

"  Oh,  it  is  terrible  to  live  thus !  I  am  afraid,  I 
am  so  afraid !  " 

"  And  of  what,  pray,  are  you  afraid.^^  "  the 
physician   asked. 

[  236  ] 


DISSOCIATION   AND   DISEASE 

"  I  am  afraid  of  cholera." 

"  Is  that  all  you  are  afraid  of?  " 

"  But  surely  it  is  quite  enough." 

Doctor  Janet  turned  for  an  explanation  to  her 
husband,  who  shook  his  head  despairingly,  as 
he  replied  in  an  undertone: 

"  This  is  the  way  she  has  been  for  years,  doctor, 
only  lately  she  has  grown  much  worse.  She  will 
scarcely  eat  anything,  for  fear  of  catching  cholera. 
It  is  diflScult  to  persuade  her  to  stir  from  the 
house.  She  seems  to  think  the  air  is  full  of  cholera 
germs.  She  sees  cholera  in  everything.  Tell  me, 
doctor,  is  my  poor  Justine  mad.'^  Must  we  be 
separated,  she  and  I.''  Is  it  that  she  will  have  to 
spend  the  rest  of  her  life  in  an  asylum.'^  " 

"  Leave  her  here  a  few  days,"  said  Doctor 
Janet,  "  and  I  can  tell  you  better  then." 

Psychopathologists  have  invented  some  deli- 
cate tests  for  discriminating  infallibly  between 
true  organic  insanity,  which  in  the  present  state 
of  medical  knowledge  is  quite  incurable,  and  func- 
tional mental  troubles  due  to  dissociation.  Ap- 
plying these.  Doctor  Janet  soon  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  Justine  was  not  really  insane,  and 
[237] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

that  her  "  phobia,"  ar  irrational  fear,  was  due  to 
some  forgotten  shock  connected  with  the  disease 
cholera. 

But,  closely  though  he  questioned  her,  she 
could  recall  nothing  of  the  sort.  He  then  decided 
to  try  the  effect  of  hypnotizing  her,  for,  as  all 
psychopathologists  are  aware,  hypnotism,  when 
it  is  possible  to  use  it,  is  an  unrivaled  agency  for 
recovering  lost  memories.  Put  into  the  hypnotic 
state,  patients  easily  remember  incidents  in  their 
past  of  which  they  have  no  conscious  recollection 
when  in  the  noraial,  waking  state.  It  was  thus 
with  Justine,  who  proved  to  be  most  hypnoti- 
zable. 

"  I  want  you,"  Doctor  Janet  told  her,  after  she 
had  passed  into  deep  hypnosis,  "  to  try  to  re- 
member whether  at  any  time  in  your  life  you  saw 
a  person  suffering  from  cholera,  or  one  who  had 
died  from  cholera." 

"  Why,  certainly  I  did,"  she  promptly  replied, 
shuddering  violently. 

"  When  was  it?  " 

"  When  I  was  a  little  girl  —  fifteen  years 
old." 

[238] 


DISSOCIATION   AND   DISEASE 

"  Tell  me  the  circumstances." 

"  My  mother  was  very  poor.  She  had  to  take 
all  sorts  of  work.  Sometimes  she  nursed  sick 
people,  and  when  they  died  she  got  them  ready 
for  burial.  Once  two  people  in  our  neighborhood 
died  from  cholera,  and  I  helped  her  with  the 
corpses.  They  made  a  frightful  sight  —  one  of 
them,  at  all  events.  It  was  the  body  of  a  man, 
naked,  and  all  blue  and  green.  Oh,  frightful, 
frightful!  What  if  I  should  catch  the  cholera.? 
I  shall  catch  it,  I  know  I  shall!  Nothing  can  save 
me! 

Her  voice  rose  in  a  shriek  of  terror,  and  Doctor 
Janet  hastened  to  de-hypnotize  her. 

The  situation  was  now  perfectly  clear  to  him. 
Evidently  the  sight  of  the  corpse,  "  naked,  and 
all  blue  and  green,"  had  so  profoundly  affected 
the  impressionable  girl  as  to  cause  a  severe  dis- 
sociation whereby  all  memory  of  the  shocking 
episode  had  been  blotted  out  of  her  consciousness, 
only  to  be  subconsciously  remembered  in  most 
minute  detail. 

To  bring  about  a  cure,  to  free  her  from  the  ob- 
sessing dread  of  cholera,  it  was  necessary  to 
[239] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

remove  the  gruesome  subconscious  memory  image, 
and  Doctor  Janet  essayed  to  do  this  through  sug- 
gestions given  to  her  when  she  was  again  hypno- 
tized. 

"  You  will  no  longer  think  of  this,"  he  kept 
assuring  her.  "  You  will  forget  it,  absolutely, 
permanently." 

Day  after  day,  for  weeks,  he  hypnotized  her, 
and  reiterated  similar  commands.  But  she  con- 
tinued to  be  afflicted  with  her  irrational  fear, 
and  it  finally  became  certain  that  her  subcon- 
scious recollection  of  the  phobia-causing  scene 
of  twenty-five  years  before  was  too  deeply 
rooted  to  be  destroyed  by  direct  attack.  In- 
stead, however,  of  abandoning  the  task  as  hope- 
less. Doctor  Janet,  with  a  shrewdness  born  of 
long  experience,  made  a  clever  change  in  tac- 
tics. 

"  You  insist,"  he  said  to  the  hypnotized  Jus- 
tine, "  that  you  cannot  help  seeing  in  your 
mind's  eye  the  corpse  of  the  man  who  died. 
Very  well,  I  have  no  objection  to  that.  But 
hereafter  you  must  see  it  decently  clothed.  So 
when  it  next  appears  to  you,  you  will  see  it 
[2401 


DISSOCIATION  AND  DISEASE 

wearing  a  bright  blue-and-green  uniform,  the 
uniform  of  a  foreign  mihtary  officer." 

Happily,  this  suggestion  "  took,"  and  Doctor 
Janet  followed  up  his  advantage  by  suggesting 
that  the  subconscious  memory  image  which  she 
regarded  as  that  of  a  corpse  was,  in  reality, 
the  image  of  a  living  man.  This  suggestion 
likewise  being  successful,  he  set  about  getting 
rid  of  the  idea  "  cholera,"  and  its  dire  implica- 
tions. Hypnotizing  the  patient  as  usual,  he 
demanded : 

"  What  is  this  '  cholera '  that  troubles  you 
so  much?  Do  you  not  understand  that  it  is 
only  the  name  of  the  fine  gentleman  in  blue  and 
green,  whom  you  see  marching  up  and  down? 
He  is  a  Chinese  general,  and  his  name  is  Cho  Le 
Ra.     Bear  that  well  in  mind." 

Quite  evidently  there  was  nothing  to  inspire 
dread  in  the  image  of  a  picturesque  Chinese 
officer,  General  Cho  Le  Ra.  Little  by  little, 
as  this  artificial  conception  obtained  firmer  lodg- 
ment in  Justine's  subconsciousness,  the  baneful 
idea  which  it  was  intended  to  supplant  faded 
away,  and  with  its  fading  the  abnormal  fear 
[2411 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

diminished,  until  at  length  it  entirely  disap- 
peared, greatly  to  her  joy  and  the  warm  gratitude 
of  her  devoted  husband.^ 

Other  psychopathologists,  following  Doctor 
Janet's  lead,  have  similarly  used  this  method  of 
substituting  one  subconscious  idea  for  another. 
Doctor  John  E.  Donley,  a  well-known  neurolo- 
gist of  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  and  one  of 
the  few  psychopathologists  whom  the  United 
States  has  yet  produced,  was  once  consulted  by  a 
young  man  of  thirty-two,  who  said  to  him: 

"  Doctor  Donley,  I  hear  you  have  been  very 
successful  in  handling  people  troubled  with  fool- 
ish notions.  I'm  bothered  with  as  foolish  a 
notion  as  any  one  could  possibly  imagine.  I 
simply  can't  bear  to  ride  in  a  street-car  with  an 
odd  number.  Even-numbered  cars  give  me  no 
trouble  at  all,  but  if  an  odd-numbered  car  comes 
along,  I've  got  to  let  it  pass,  no  matter  how  great 
my  hurry.  My  friends  laugh  at  me,  but  I  tell 
you  it's  no  laughing  matter.    The  thing  has  got 

on  my  nerves  so  that  it  is  unbearable." 

*  This  case  and  a  number  of  other  instances  of  forgotten 
terrors  giving  rise  to  disease-symptoms  are  discussed  in  detail 
in  Doctor  Janet's  "  N^vroses  et  Id6es  Fixes." 

[242] 


DISSOCIATION  AND   DISEASE 

"  How  long  have  you  been  suffering  in  this 
way?  "  asked  Doctor  Donley. 

"  For  years.  Just  when  it  began  I  can't  re- 
member." 

"  Is  it  only  odd-numbered  cars  that  affect 
you.''  How  about  odd-numbered  houses,  for 
instance?  " 

"  No,  no,"  answered  the  young  man,  "  it 
isn't  odd  numbers  in  general.  That  doesn't 
bother  me  a  bit.  It's  just  when  they're  painted 
on  street-cars." 

"  H'm,"  said  Doctor  Donley.  "  Ever  been  in 
a  street-car  accident?  " 

"  Never." 

"  Ever  seen  one?  " 

"  Not  that  I  remember." 

"  You  are  quite  sure  as  to  that?  " 

"  Quite." 

"  Have  you  any  objection  to  my  hypnotizing 
you.'' 

"  Not  in  the  least,  if  it  is  likely  to  do  me  any 
good." 

In  another  ten  minutes  the  problem  was 
solved.  Doctor  Donley  from  the  outset  had  felt 
[  243  1 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

confident  that  the  young  man's  phobia  must  be 
connected  in  some  way  with  a  street-car  accident, 
and  so  it  proved.  Fourteen  years  earlier,  when 
walking  along  the  street,  he  had  seen  a  car  strike 
and  seriously  injure  a  child  who  unexpectedly 
came  from  behind  a  wagon.  He  had  noticed 
at  the  time  that  the  car  bore  the  number  two 
hundred  and  thirteen,  and  he  remembered  think- 
ing to  himself:  "There  is  always  bad  luck  in 
thirteen."  The  sight  of  the  accident  gave  him 
a  marked  emotional  shock,  which,  he  said,  upset 
him  for  several  days. 

All  of  this  had  long  since  passed  from  his 
waking  memory,  but  was  distinctly  recalled 
during  hypnosis.  It  was  clear  to  Doctor  Donley 
that  the  case  was  one  of  dissociation,  and  that 
the  exciting  cause  of  the  young  man's  unreason- 
able dread  of  odd-numbered  cars  was  based  on  a 
painfully  vivid  subconscious  memory  image  of 
the  consciously  forgotten  tragedy.  Also,  it  was 
evident  that  before  the  dread  could  be  overcome 
the  distressing  memory  image  would  have  to  be 
eradicated. 

To   accomplish   this,    Doctor   Donley   resorted 
[2441 


DISSOCIATION  AND   DISEASE 

to  the  method  of  substitution,  suggesting  to  the 
patient,  while  still  under  hypnotic  influence,  that 
he  was  quite  mistaken  in  supposing  that  the 
street-car  had  seriously  injured  the  little  girl; 
that,  on  the  contrary,  it  had  scarcely  touched  her. 

The  result,  after  only  eight  days'  treatment, 
was  effectually  to  replace  the  painful  memory 
image  with  one  free  from  distressing  associations. 
As  by  magic,  the  young  man  shook  off  his  absurd 
phobia.  No  longer,  when  he  had  to  take  a  car, 
did  he  stand  on  street  corners,  sometimes  for  an 
hour  at  a  time,  waiting  anxiously  for  a  car  with 
an  even  number  to  appear.^ 

Bizarre  as  these  cases  must  seem,  they  are 
actually  typical  of  a  widespread  malady  that 
causes  an  amount  of  suffering  only  appreciable 
by  the  sufferers  themselves.  In  every  land  there 
are  thousands  of  men  and  women  afflicted  with 
obsessions  equally  strange  and  equally  distress- 
ing, yet  amenable  to  treatment  by  the  methods 
of  psychopathology. 

^  This  case  and  seveTal  others  similarly  illustrative  of  the 
disease-creating  power  of  emotional  disturbances  are  discussed 
by  Doctor  Donley  in  "  Psychotherapeutics,"  a  book  of  com- 
posite authorsliip. 

[245] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Often,  in  order  to  effect  a  cure,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  make  use  of  the  roundabout  device  just 
described.  Direct  suggestion  —  a  strongly  nega- 
tive command  imposed  in  the  hypnotic  state  — 
is  frequently  sufficient. 

Often,  besides,  it  is  not  necessary  to  use  hypno- 
tism at  all,  a  cure  resulting  if  only  the  psycho- 
pathologist  can  dig  down  to  the  root  of  the 
trouble,  and,  by  recalling  to  conscious  recollec- 
tion the  lost  memory  image,  reassociate  it  with 
the  rest  of  the  contents  of  the  upper  conscious- 
ness. 

Particularly  interesting  in  this  connection,  as 
being  illustrative  also  of  an  ingenious  method  of 
"  mind  tunnelling "  nowadays  frequently  em- 
ployed to  get  at  forgotten  memories,  is  a  case 
reported  by  Doctor  A.  A.  Brill,  a  New  York 
psychopathologist.  His  patient  was  a  young 
woman  who  applied  to  be  treated  for  extreme 
nervousness.  She  had  been  perfectly  well  until 
three  months  before,  when,  she  said,  she  had 
begun  to  suffer  from  a  complication  of  disorders, 
including  insomnia,  loss  of  appetite,  constant 
headache,  irritability,  and  stomach  trouble.  No 
[2461 


DISSOCIATION   AND   DISEASE 

physical  cause  for  her  condition  could  be  de- 
tected, and  Doctor  Brill  suspected  that  it  was 
due  to  some  secret  anxiety,  but  the  patient 
earnestly  assured  him  that  she  "  had  nothing 
on  her  mind." 

To  get  at  the  facts  which  he  suspected  she 
was  consciously  or  unconsciously  concealing  from 
him.  Doctor  Brill  decided  to  make  use  of  what 
is  known  as  the  "  association-reaction  method 
of  mental  diagnosis,"  a  cumbersome  and  for- 
midable term  for  a  really  simple  process. 

Everybody  knows  that  if  a  man  is  suddenly 
asked  a  question  bearing  on  matters  which  per- 
sonally concern  him  and  which  he  is  anxious  to 
keep  entirely  to  himself,  he  is  apt  to  "  react  " 
to  the  question  in  a  way  that  will  betray  the 
true  state  of  affairs.  He  may  blush  or  stammer 
before  replying,  may  reply  evasively,  may  find 
it  impossible  to  reply  at  all.  If  he  is  a  man  of 
uncommon  self-control,  and  not  to  be  taken  off 
his  guard,  the  reply  may  come  smoothly  enough, 
and  to  all  appearance  without  hesitation.  Never- 
theless, experiment  has  shown  that,  even  in  such 
cases,  there  is  an  appreciable  difference  in  the 
[247] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

time,  if  not  in  the  character,  of  the  replies  he 
makes  to  emotion-arousing  questions,  as  com- 
pared with  the  time  it  takes  him  to  reply  to 
questions  that  have  no  special  significance  to 
him.  The  same  holds  good  in  the  case  of  ques- 
tions evoking  within  him  memories  —  albeit  per- 
haps wholly  subconscious  memories  —  of  hap- 
penings that  may  be  no  longer,  but  once  were,  of 
keen  emotional  import  to  him. 

Out  of  the  discovery  of  this  fact  the  association- 
reaction  method  has  been  evolved.  The  specialist 
using  it  reads  slowly  to  his  patient  a  list  of  one 
hundred  words  or  more,  and  requests  him,  as 
he  hears  each,  to  respond  with  the  first  word  that 
comes  into  his  mind.  Seemingly  the  list  of 
stimulus  words  is  chosen  at  random;  actually  it 
is  so  constructed  that  some  of  the  words  are  likely 
to  stir  into  activity  the  subconscious  memories 
of  which  the  physician  is  in  search.  If  they  do 
this  the  fact  will  be  disclosed  in  the  time  of  his 
reaction- words  —  the  words  he  utters  in  reply 
—  as  measured  by  a  chronoscope  or  stop-watch; 
or  in  their  character,  as  noted  down  by  the 
specialist. 

[248] 


DISSOCLVTION   AND   DISEASE 

Of  course,  it  is  necessary  for  the  physician  to 
select  words  having,  or  hkely  to  have,  emotional 
significance  to  the  particular  patient;  and  as  a 
guide  in  the  selection,  strange  though  it  may 
seem,  nothing  is  more  useful  than  the  patient's 
dreams.  For  it  has  been  definitely  established 
that  dreams  are  far  from  being  the  haphazard 
products  of  imagination  they  are  generally  sup- 
posed to  be;  that  on  the  contrary,  no  matter 
how  trivial  or  nonsensical  they  seem,  they  always 
have  an  emotional  foundation  corresponding  with 
some  present  or  past  reality;  and  that  usually 
they  mask  matters  of  distinct  significance  to  the 
dreamer. 

As  a  preliminary,  then,  in  the  treatment  of 
his  nervous  patient.  Doctor  Brill  asked  her  to 
write  out  her  dreams  and  bring  them  to  him. 

"  But,"  she  said,  "  I  never  dream,  except 
when  I  am  troubled  by  indigestion,  and  then 
my  dreams  are  so  absurd  that  they  are  not  worth 
telling." 

"  Never  mind,"  was  his  reply.  "  Whenever 
you  do  happen  to  have  a  dream,  report  it  to 
me." 

[249] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

Laughingly  she  promised  to  comply,  and  one 
day  brought  him  the  following: 

"  I  dreamed  that  I  was  in  a  lonely  country  place 
and  was  anxious  to  reach  my  home,  but  could 
not  get  there.  Every  time  I  made  a  move  there 
was  a  wall  in  the  way  —  it  looked  like  a  street 
full  of  walls.  My  legs  were  as  heavy  as  lead; 
I  could  only  walk  very  slowly  as  if  I  were  very 
weak  or  very  old.  Then  there  was  a  flock  of 
chickens,  but  that  seemed  to  be  in  a  crowded  city 
street,  and  they  —  the  chickens  —  ran  after  me, 
and  the  biggest  of  all  said  something  like :  '  Come 
with  me  into  the  dark.'  " 

"  There,"  she  said,  "  that  is  my  dream,  and 
if  you  can  make  head  or  tail  of  it,  it  is  more  than 
I  can.  It  is  so  ridiculous  that  I  am  ashamed  to 
tell  it." 

But  Doctor  Brill  was  already  at  work  drawing 
up  a  test  list,  with  the  more  striking  words  of 
the  dream  sprinkled  through  it.  Twice  he  read 
the  list  to  her,  noting  not  only  the  time  of  her 
responses,  but  also  their  character. 

He  was  immediately  impressed  by  the  fact 
that  certain  of  the  dream  words  —  such  as 
[250] 


DISSOCIATION  AND   DISEASE 

"  chicken,"  "  street,"  and  "  dark  "  had  caused 
a  noticeable  time  variation;  and  that  she  had 
also  given  in  her  responses  words  that  would  not 
ordinarily  be  associated  with  the  test  words. 
Especially  peculiar  was  the  association  of  "  mys- 
tery "  and  "  marriage  "  with  the  word  "  dark." 
The  suspicion  formed  in  his  mind  that  a  disap- 
pointment in  love  might  be  at  the  bottom  of  all 
her  disease  symptoms.  But  he  did  not  at  once 
give  voice  to  this  idea;  instead,  he  sought  to 
obtain  corroboration  from  her  own  lips  without 
her  appreciating  his  purpose,  by  means  of  an- 
other method  of  "  mind  tunnelling  "  known  as 
the  method  of  free  association. 

"  I  want  you,"  he  said  to  her,  "  to  concentrate 
your  attention  on  the  word  '  chicken,'  and  state 
the  thoughts  that  come  to  you  in  connection 
with   it." 

Her  reply,  given  after  a  few  moments  of  silent 
meditation,  was: 

"  I  remember  now  that  I  could  see  only  the 

biggest  chicken;    all  the  others  seemed  blurred; 

it  was  unusually  big  and  had  a  very  long  neck 

and  it  spoke  to  me.    The  street  in  which  I  saw  it 

[251] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

recalls  where  I  used  to  go  to  school  —  the  block 
was  always  crowded  with  school  children." 

She  paused,  and  began  to  blush  and  laugh. 

"  Go  on,"  said  Doctor  Brill  encouragingly. 
"  What  next?  " 

"  Why,  it  recalls  the  happy  school  days  when 
I  was  young  and  had  no  worries.  I  even  had 
a  beau,  a  boy  who  attended  the  same  school. 
We  used  to  meet  after  school  hours  and  walk 
home  together.  He  was  lanky  and  thin,  and  the 
girls  used  to  tease  me  about  him.  Whenever 
they  saw  him  coming,  they  said :  '  Belle,  here 
comes  your  chicken.'  That  was  his  nickname 
among  the  boys." 

Stopping  suddenly,  she  exclaimed: 

"  Doctor  Brill,  it  couldn't  be  possible  that  the 
chicken  with  the  long  neck,  that  I  saw  in  my 
dream,  was  my  old  beau!  " 

"  It  begins  to  look  very  much  like  it,"  he 
smiled.     "  Have  you  seen  him  lately?  " 

"  Not  for  months." 

"  And  before  then?  " 

Little  by  little  the  whole  story  came  out. 
They  had  kept  up  their  acquaintance  after  the 
[252] 


DISSOCIATION  AND   DISEASE 

school  days  were  long  gone.  Three  times  he  had 
asked  her  to  marry  him,  but  each  time  she  had 
refused,  because  although  she  "  liked  "  him  she 
was  not  at  all  sure  that  she  "  loved  "  him.  At 
last  she  had  decided  that  the  next  time  he  pro- 
posed she  would  accept.  But  he  had  not  pro- 
posed again.  And  shortly  before  she  became  ill 
she  had  heard  that  he  was  paying  attentions  to 
another  young  lady. 

"  I  take  it,"  interposed  Doctor  Brill,  "  that  he 
is  not  so  well  off  as  he  might  be,  and  that  this  had 
something  to  do  with  your  refusing  to  marry 
him." 

"  What  makes  you  say  that.^^  " 

"  In  your  dream  I  note  that  you  state:  '  Every 
time  I  made  a  move  there  was  a  wall  in  the  way; 
it  looked  like  a  street  full  of  walls.'  A  street 
full  of  walls  might  easily  signify  Wall  Street  — 
hence  money.  That  has  been  the  real  obstacle, 
has  it  not?  " 

She  confessed  that  he  was  right. 

He  then  explained  that  the  one  great  cause 
of  her  ills  was  her  insistent,  if  subconscious, 
brooding  over  the  disappointment  she  had  ex- 
[253] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

perienced,  and  that  her  cure  depended  upon  her 
ability  to  overcome  this  mental  attitude.  Real- 
izing for  the  first  time,  as  a  result  of  the  dream 
analysis,  that  she  was  really  in  love  with  the  man 
she  had  three  times  declined  to  wed,  she  soon 
solved  the  problem.  Only  a  hint  was  needed 
to  transform  him  into  a  suitor  once  more,  and 
within  a  very  few  months  they  were  happily 
married.^ 

Sometimes  direct  questioning  is  sufficient  to 
enable  the  physician  to  get  at  the  underlying 
mental  cause  of  trouble.  Take,  for  example,  an- 
other case  successfully  treated  by  Doctor  Donley. 

The  patient  was  a  woman  of  thirty-five  who 
was  troubled  by  a  constant  and  involuntary 
hacking,  which  sounded  as  though  she  were 
trying  to  clear  her  throat.  Drugs,  local  applica- 
tions, and  electricity  had  been  tried  at  intervals 
during  more  than  four  years,  but  to  no  purpose. 
On  inquiry,  it  was  found  that  the  trouble  had 
set  in  about  five  years  before,  when  the  patient, 
who  was  a  mill  hand,  had  suffered  from  a  sore 

1  Doctor  Brill  has  reported  and  discussed  this  case  in  his 
recently  published  "  Psychanalysis,"  pp.  48-54. 

[254] 


DISSOCIATION  AND   DISEASE 

throat.  The  physician  whom  she  then  consulted 
told  her  that  she  had  a  bad  case  of  tonsilitis, 
and  that  her  tonsils  would  have  to  be  burned 
out. 

Greatly  frightened,  she  had  hurried  home,  re- 
fusing to  submit  to  the  operation.  In  a  few  days 
the  tonsilar  symptoms  disappeared,  and  she  re- 
turned to  work.  But  she  was  attacked  a  second 
time  three  weeks  later,  and  visited  another  doc- 
tor, to  be  informed  that  her  tonsils  were  so  badly 
diseased  that  it  would  be  well  to  have  them  re- 
moved by  cutting. 

Again  she  refused  to  submit  to  an  operation, 
but  the  fear  of  cutting,  added  to  her  previous 
fear,  now  revived,  of  burning  out  her  tonsils, 
threw  her  into  a  highly  nervous  state.  She  then 
began  to  experience  an  unpleasant  stinging, 
tickling  feeling  in  her  throat,  which  she  tried  to 
remove  by  hacking.  As  the  tickling  continued, 
the  hacking  became  more  and  more  frequent, 
and  by  the  time  she  came  under  Doctor  Donley's 
observation  had  taken  on  the  character  of  a 
"  tic,"  or  uncontrollable  muscular  movement. 

These  facts  in  the  early  history  of  the  case, 
[255] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

the  patient  herself  remembered  only  vaguely. 
But  she  confessed  that  she  was  still  tormented 
by  a  haunting  fear  of  a  possible  future  burning 
or  cutting  of  her  tonsils.  Finding  her  exceed- 
ingly suggestible.  Doctor  Donley  made  no  at- 
tempt to  hypnotize  her.  He  merely  requested 
her  to  close  her  eyes,  remain  perfectly  passive, 
and  listen  attentively  to  him. 

"  She  was  then  told,  with  much  emphasis,"  he 
says,  in  describing  the  treatment,  "  that  her 
tonsils  were  perfectly  healthy,  that  no  cutting 
or  burning  ever  was  or  ever  would  be  required; 
that  the  tickling  sensation  in  her  throat  arose 
from  the  constant  fixation  of  attention  upon  this 
part;  that  she  would  feel  no  more  desire  to  hack 
because  her  supposed  reason  for  hacking  had 
ceased  to  exist,  and  finally,  that  when  she  should 
open  her  eyes  she  would  feel  better  than  she  had 
in  a  good  many  years. 

"  Much  emphasis  was  placed  upon  this  feeling 
of  health,  because  it  was  desired  to  leave  her 
on  the  crest  of  a  pleasurable  emotion,  which  of 
itself  has  a  very  great  suggestive  value.  What 
had  been  predicted  in  her  regard  actually  oc- 
[256] 


DISSOCIATION  AND   DISEASE 

curred.  When  she  sat  up,  her  tic  had  disappeared, 
and  she  expressed  herself  as  feehng  quite  grateful 
and  happy.  The  treatment  lasted  an  hour,  and 
except  for  two  slight  recurrences  easily  removed 
by  waking  suggestion,  this  patient  has  had  no 
further   difficulty."  ^ 

Unfortunately,  such  an  easy  solution  of  prob- 
lems like  this  is  comparatively  rare,  particularly 
when,  as  in  this  instance,  a  physical  trouble  is 
superadded  to  the  mental.  Often  —  a  fact  which 
cannot  be  emphasized  too  strongly  —  it  happens 
that,  in  dissociational  cases,  physical  symptoms 
so  far  predominate  as  to  lead  to  totally  wrong 
diagnosis,  even  by  experienced  physicians.  This 
results,  as  was  hinted  above,  from  the  power 
inherent  in  subconscious  "  fixed  ideas  "  of  pro- 
ducing an  endless  variety  of  disturbances  simu- 
lating true  organic  diseases,  it  may  be  diseases 
remediable  only  through  surgical  operations. 

As  a  consequence,  innumerable  operations  have 
been  performed  on  patients  who  should  have  been 
given,  not  surgical  but  psychopathological  treat- 
ment. I  have  in  mind  as  I  write  a  case  of  this 
1  Quoted  from  "  Psychotherapeutics:  A  Symposium,"  p.  152. 

[2571 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

kind  that  was  called  to  my  attention  by  a  friend 
who  participated  in  the  lamentable  ajBfair. 

A  middle-aged  woman  entered  one  of  the 
Boston  hospitals  and  complained  of  severe  ab- 
dominal pains,  which  she  attributed  to  cancer 
of  the  stomach  or  intestines.  She  was  obviously 
greatly  frightened,  and  suffering  intense  agony. 
A  diagnosis  of  appendicitis  was  made,  and  an 
immediate  operation  deemed  imperative. 

But,  to  the  surprise  of  the  surgeons,  the  ap- 
pendix was  found  to  be  in  a  normal  condition. 
At  once  they  directed  their  attention  to  the 
other  abdominal  organs,  examining  them  one 
by  one.  None  showed  any  sign  of  disease.  Fi- 
nally, with  a  rueful  smile,  one  of  the  surgeons 
straightened  up,  and,  touching  a  finger  to  his 
head,  said: 

"  The  trouble  with  this  poor  woman,  gentle- 
men, is  here,  not  in  the  region  that  we  have  been 
exploring.  But  we  should  not  undeceive  her. 
We  will  remove  the  appendix,  on  general  prin- 
ciples, and  that  will  probably  be  all  that  is  needed 
to  cure  the  trouble  in  her  head." 

Under  the  circumstances,  it  was  excellent  ad- 
[258] 


DISSOCIATION  AND  DISEASE 

vice.  But  how  much  better  it  would  have  been 
for  the  unfortunate  woman,  whose  life  was  thus 
endangered  by  the  surgeon's  knife,  if  it  had  been 
recognized  from  the  beginning  that  her  malady 
was  only  a  "  hysterical  simulation  "  of  the  symp- 
toms of  appendicitis.  Some  day,  when  physicians 
generally  make  themselves  acquainted  with  the 
diagnostic  methods  of  psychopathology,  blunders 
like  this  will  be,  as  they  ought  to  be,  most  ex- 
ceptional. 

In  point  both  of  diagnosis  and  treatment, 
again,  psychopathological  knowledge  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  correct  handling  of  such  cases 
as  the  following,  reported  by  Doctor  Janet.  ^ 
It  is,  I  am  ready  to  concede,  an  unusual  case, 
but  it  is  unusual  only  because  it  presents  a  com- 
plex of  symptoms  commonly  found  singly  or  in 
simpler   combination. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  estimate  with  any 
accuracy  the  number  of  persons  who,  afflicted 
only  in  scant  degree  like  this  poor  Marcelle, 
have  been  obliged  to  drag  out  an  existence  worse 
than  death,  either  in  the  care  of  their  friends 

1  In  "  Nevroses  et  Idees  Fixes,"  vol.  i,  pp.  1-68. 
[259] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

or  immured  in  an  institution,  simply  because 
their  medical  attendants,  ignorant  of  the  work- 
ings of  the  law  of  dissociation,  have  been  unable 
to  fathom  the  true  nature  of  their  ills  and  adopt 
adequate  curative  measures. 

Marcelle,  as  Doctor  Janet  calls  her,  was  only 
nineteen  years  old  when  she  began  to  astonish 
her  relatives  by  developing  what  they  were  at 
first  disposed  to  regard  as  nothing  but  an  eccen- 
tric form  of  laziness.  She  would  constantly  ask 
them  to  give  her  objects  —  a  book,  her  crochet 
work,  a  plate  —  which  she  could  easily  have  got 
for  herself  by  stretching  out  her  hand  and  pick- 
ing them  up.  To  all  expostulations,  she  would 
calmly   reply : 

"  I  can't  help  it.  I  can't  use  my  hands  as  I 
once  did,  and  that's  all  there  is  to  it." 

"  You  can't  use  your  hands!     What  nonsense! 
You  can  use  them  to  eat  with,  well  enough,  and 
you  are  crocheting  most  of  the  time." 
"  Oh,  but  that's  different." 
"  What's  the  difference?    Tell  us." 
But  Marcelle  could  not,  or  would  not,  tell  them, 
and  from  joking  with  her  the  family  soon  passed 
[2601 


DISSOCIATION  AND   DISEASE 

to  a  state  of  wrath,  endeavoring  in  every  way  to 
overcome  her  "  stupid  obstinacy."  Their  anger 
in  turn  gave  way  to  fear,  when,  one  night,  noticing 
a  glimmer  of  hght  in  her  room,  they  entered,  and 
found  her  standing,  fully  dressed,  before  the  bed. 

"  But  what  is  this!  "  they  exclaimed,  in  amaze- 
ment. "  Why  don't  you  get  your  clothes  off 
and  go  to  bed?  " 

"Because,"  she  cried,  "I  can't  undress!" 

And,  all  arguments  proving  vain,  it  was  neces- 
sary for  her  sister  to  disrobe  her  as  though  she 
were  a  tiny  child.  Next  day  a  consultation  was 
held,  and  it  was  decided  to  take  her  to  the  Sal- 
petriere. 

"  She  doesn't  seem  insane,"  her  mother  ex- 
plained, when  applying  to  have  her  admitted. 
"  She  talks  sensibly  about  most  things.  Can  it 
be  that  she  is  really  suffering  from  some  kind 
of   paralysis?  " 

"  Most  assuredly,"  was  the  reply,  "  and  we  will 
do  our  best  to  discover  what  it  is  and  cure  it." 

This  turned  out  to  be  no  easy  matter.    Doctor 
Janet,  into  whose  care  she  came,  had  no  diffi- 
culty  in   determining   that   the   specific   malady 
[261] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

which  afflicted  her  was  an  extreme  form  of 
"  abouha,"  a  disease  involving  temporary  paraly- 
sis of  the  will,  and  thereby  preventing  all  mus- 
cular movement.  But  it  was  one  thing  to  make  a 
diagnosis,  and  another  to  effect  a  cure. 

Presently,  too,  indications  of  mental  disturb- 
ance developed.  Doctor  Janet  had  discovered 
that  by  distracting  her  attention  he  could  induce 
her  to  rise,  extend  her  hands,  and  perform  other 
acts  that  were  impossible  to  her  when  she  con- 
centrated her  attention  on  them.  He  utilized 
this  as  an  argument  to  try  and  persuade  her 
that  she  could  always  control  her  limbs  if  she 
only  made  sufficient  effort. 

"  But  you  are  quite  wrong,"  she  calmly  in- 
formed him.  "  I  have  not  left  my  chair,  I  have 
not  put  out  my  hand." 

"  Most  assuredly  you  have.  You  know  very 
well  I  did  not  give  you  that  piece  of  crochet 
work.    How,  then,  does  it  come  into  your  hands?  " 

"  I  did  not  pick  it  up." 

"  Who  did,  then?  " 

"  Somebody  else  —  somebody  acting  in  me." 

A  little  later  arose  another  complication.  She 
[2621 


DISSOCIATION  AND   DISEASE 

refused  to  eat,  and  it  became  necessary  to  ad- 
minister food  to  her  forcibly.  She  kept  saying 
to  herself: 

"  You  must  die,  you  must  die  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible. You  must  not  eat,  you  have  no  need  of  eat- 
ing. You  must  not  speak,  you  have  no  voice, 
you  are  paralyzed." 

"  Why  do  you  say  this?  "  Doctor  Janet  one 
day  asked  her. 

"  Why  do  I  say  what?  " 

He  repeated  her  words. 

"  But  I  have  said  nothing  of  the  sort." 

"  Oh,  yes,  you  have." 

"  No,  no,  no  —  it  was  not  I;  it  was  somebody 
else  acting  in  me." 

Again  that  phrase  —  "  somebody  else  acting 
in  me."  Greatly  impressed.  Doctor  Janet  threw 
her  into  deep  hypnosis.  Now,  an  unexpected 
and  most  pathetic  passage  of  personal  history 
came  to  light.  A  year  before,  Marcelle  had  had 
a  secret  love  affair,  her  lover  had  deserted  her, 
she  had  determined  to  commit  suicide.  Failing 
to  do  this,  she  had,  none  the  less  —  overwhelmed 
by  the  shock  of  the  desertion,  and  giving  herself 
[2631 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

wholly  to  grief  and  chagrin,  which  she  felt  obliged 
to  allow  no  one  to  perceive  —  gradually  passed 
into  a  dissociated,  dreamlike  state,  in  which  she 
subconsciously  pictured  herself  to  herself  either 
as  no  longer  existing  or  as  about  to  perish. 

Hence  her  "  aboulia,"  hence  the  "  somebody 
else  acting  in  me,"  hence  the  refusal  to  take  food. 
To  Doctor  Janet  the  situation  was  now  almost 
as  clear  as  the  light  of  day  —  so,  likewise,  was  the 
course  which  he  would  need  to  follow  to  restore 
the  sufferer  to  her  "  real  self,"  and  rid  her  of  all 
disease  symptoms. 

The  dissociation,  to  put  it  briefly,  had  in  this 
case  been  so  complete  as  to  cause  an  actual  dis- 
ruption of  the  sense  of  personality.  Nor  is  this 
malady  of  "  loss  of  personality  "  as  rare  as  one 
might  be  tempted  to  think.  I  could  mention 
many  cases  not  unlike  that  of  Marcelle's,  and 
some  far  surpassing  it  in  astounding  develop- 
ments. There  is,  for  example,  the  singular  case 
of  BCA.  But  this  is  so  remarkable,  so  weirdly 
fascinating,  and  so  instructive  that  it  deserves 
to  be  treated,  as  I  shall  treat  it  in  the  next  chap- 
ter, entirely  by  itself. 

[264] 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   SINGULAR   CASE   OF   BCA 

DURING  his  long  career  as  a  specialist  in  the 
treatment  of  nervous  and  mental  diseases, 
Doctor  Morton  Prince,  the  celebrated  Boston 
psychopathologist,  has  been  called  upon  to  deal 
with  many  puzzling  human  riddles,  and  to  solve 
mysteries  which,  in  their  way,  have  been  quite 
as  complicated  and  baflQing  as  any  that  ever 
taxed  the  ingenuity  of  that  most  ingenious  of 
story-book  detectives,  Mr.  Sherlock  Holmes. 
In  fact,  some  of  the  problems  laid  before  the 
New  England  specialist  surpass  even  the  most 
astonishing  of  the  adventures  of  Sherlock  Holmes, 
thus  proving  once  more  that  truth  is  stranger 
than  fiction.  This  particularly  applies  to  the 
BCA  affair. 

In  the  beginning,  however,  there  was  nothing 
in  the  BCA  affair  to  suggest  to  Doctor  Prince 
that   it   had   features   which   would   test   to   the 
[2651 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

utmost  his  psychopathological  skill.  It  opened 
in  a  prosaic,  matter-of-fact  way,  with  the  ar- 
rival at  his  office  of  a  young  woman  who  wished 
to  be  treated  for  what  she  described  as  a  "  nerv- 
ous breakdown."  The  story  she  told  was  a  sad 
one,  but  he  had  heard  many  quite  like  it  before, 
and  it  did  not  impress  him  as  involving  anything 
out  of  the  ordinary. 

"  My  trouble,"  she  said,  in  describing  the 
evolution  of  her  malady,  "  began  when  my 
husband  was  attacked  with  an  incurable  disease. 
For  four  years  my  life  was  altogether  given  up 
to  caring  for  him,  striving  to  make  him  as  com- 
fortable as  possible,  and  endeavoring  to  conceal 
from  him  my  grief  and  anxiety.  You  can  imagine 
the  strain  put  upon  me  all  that  time.  Finally 
he  died,  under  circumstances  that  caused  me  a 
great  shock. 

"  Within  less  than  a  week  after  his  death,  I 
lost  twenty  pounds  in  weight.  For  nearly  three 
months  I  ate  scarcely  anything,  and  did  not 
average  more  than  three  or  four  hours'  sleep  out 
of  the  twenty-four.  I  was  depressed,  over- 
whelmed; felt  that  I  had  lost  all  that  made  life 
[2661 


THE  SINGULAR  CASE  OF  BCA 

worth  living;  and,  in  short,  wished  to  die.  I 
became  highly  nervous,  tired  easily,  and  suffered 
almost  constantly  from  headaches. 

"  This  went  on  for  many  months.  Then  there 
came  a  period  of  temporary  recovery.  Strangely 
enough,  it  followed  an  occurrence  that  brought 
to  me  suddenly  a  realization  that  my  position 
in  life  was  entirely  changed,  that  I  was  quite 
alone,  desolate,  and  helpless.  For  a  few  minutes 
these  ideas  flashed  through  my  mind,  and  then 
all  seemed  changed.  I  no  longer  minded  what,  a 
moment  before,  had  caused  me  so  much  distress; 
and,  what  is  more,  I  immediately  began  to  im- 
prove in  health,  until  I  was  able  to  mingle  with 
my  friends,  take  long  walks,  go  driving,  and 
really  enjoy  life  as  I  had  formerly  done.  Alas, 
there  soon  was  a  relapse,  and  now  I  am  feeling 
worse  than  ever." 

Listening  to  her  recital,  and  examining  care- 
fully her  mental  and  physical  condition,  Doctor 
Prince  felt  justified  in  assuring  her  that  there 
was  nothing  seriously  the  matter,  and  that  he 
would  ere  long  have  her  on  the  highway  to  health. 
In  fact,  he  regarded  her  case  as  one  presenting 
[  267  ] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

"  the  ordinary  picture  of  so-called  neurasthenia, 
characterized  by  persistent  fatigue  and  the  usual 
somatic  symptoms,  and  by  moral  doubts  and 
scruples";  and  planned  a  course  of  treatment 
which  he  expected  would  speedily  result  in  a 
cure.  It  was,  to  describe  it  briefly,  treatment  by 
hypnotic  suggestion  —  a  method  often  employed 
by  psychopathologists  in  handling  cases  of  neu- 
rasthenia, for  they  have  discovered  that  it  is 
perfectly  feasible  to  "  suggest  away  "  the  fatigue, 
insomnia,  and  other  symptoms  connected  with 
this  widespread  and  distressing  malady. 

The  use  of  hypnotism  in  the  present  instance, 
though,  was  attended  by  consequences  vastly 
different  from  any  Doctor  Prince  had  anticipated, 
since  it  revealed  to  him  that  his  patient  was,  in 
reality,  suffering  from  something  infinitely  more 
serious  than  ordinary  neurasthenia,  and  in- 
finitely more  difficult  to  overcome.  Put  into 
the  hypnotic  state,  her  ills,  to  Doctor  Prince's 
amazement,  disappeared  as  though  by  a  miracle. 
Her  whole  expression  was  altered.  She  looked, 
and  declared  that  she  felt,  entirely  well.  It  was 
hard  to  believe  that  this  radiant,  vigorous, 
[268] 


THE  SINGULAR  CASE  OF  BCA 

brightly  smiling  woman  was  the  one  who  had 
entered  his  office  so  short  a  time  before,  a  typical 
nervous  wreck,  her  features  haggard  and  care- 
worn, her  eyes  dull  and  heavy,  her  hands  trem- 
bling. And,  most  astonishing  of  all,  the  hypno- 
tized patient  herself  insisted  that,  in  a  very  literal 
sense,  she  was  not  the  same  person. 

The  tone,  the  language,  the  manner  —  all 
were  changed.  Struck  with  sudden  apprehension. 
Doctor  Prince  quickly  brought  her  out  of  h;^'pno- 
sis.  Immediately  there  was  another  transforma- 
tion, and  she  was  neurasthenic  once  more,  with- 
out the  slightest  remnant  of  the  strength,  inde- 
pendence, and  self-assertiveness  she  had  just 
been  displaying.  Nor,  although  she  was  sharply 
questioned,  could  she  remember  anything  she 
had  said  while  hypnotized;  still,  this  proved 
nothing,  for  it  is  seldom  that  what  goes  on  during 
hypnosis  is  recalled  in  the  waking  state. 

But,  comparing  her  latest  declarations  with 
her  prior  account  of  the  course  her  malady  had 
run.  Doctor  Prince  could  not  help  asking  himself 
whether  she  might  not  actually  be  a  victim  of 
what  is  technically  designated  "  total  dissocia- 
[2691 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

tion  of  personality,"  whether  the  second  emo- 
tional shock  of  which  she  had  spoken,  acting 
on  a  system  already  disorganized  by  the  severe 
and  prolonged  strain  imposed  upon  her  by  her 
husband's  illness,  might  not  have  resulted  in  a 
psychical  upheaval  so  catastrophic  as  to  involve 
the  disintegration  of  her  ego,  or  "  self,"  and  the 
creation  of  a  secondary  self  markedly  differing 
from  her  original  personality. 

In  such  an  event,  the  period  of  temporary  re- 
covery would,  indeed,  represent  a  period  when 
the  secondary  self  had  obtained  at  least  partial 
control  of  the  patient's  organism;  and  it  was 
quite  conceivable  that  there  might  come  a  time 
when,  momentarily,  at  any  rate,  the  secondary 
self  would  become  wholly  dominant.  In  that 
case,  the  young  woman's  plight  would  be  appall- 
ing, for  she  would  be  in  ignorance  of  all  she  said 
and  did  while  in  the  secondary  state.  This  was 
precisely  what  occurred. 

Only  a  few  days  after  she  had  first  visited  him, 
she  came  into  Doctor  Prince's  oflfice  in  a  greatly 
excited  condition. 

"  Doctor,"  she  cried,  "  the  strangest,  the  most 
[2701 


THE  SINGULAR  CASE  OF  BCA 

inexplicable  thing  has  happened  to  me!  This 
morning,  after  breakfast,  I  went  up-stairs,  in- 
tending to  lie  down  for  a  time,  as  I  felt  so  utterly 
exhausted.  I  think  I  fell  asleep,  but  am  not  sure. 
I  do  know,  though,  that  two  hours  afterward  I 
found  myself  standing  in  the  post-office,  about 
to  mail  to  you  a  letter  which  I  am  certain  I  did 
not  write,  but  which  is  plainly  in  my  hand- 
writing. It  is  such  a  queer  letter,  too,  for  it 
speaks  of  matters  of  which  I  know  nothing,  and 
even  refers  to  me  as  though  I  were  somebody  else, 
and  somebody  else  were  I.  What  does  this 
mean-f*    What  does  it  mean.?  " 

And,  in  a  day  or  so,  she  had  an  even  stranger 
story  to  relate. 

"  Yesterday  afternoon,"  she  said,  "  I  went  for 
a  walk,  not  because  I  wanted  to,  but  because 
you  had  told  me  that  I  ought  to  take  some  exercise. 
I  returned  home  about  four  o'clock,  and  went 
straight  to  my  room.  I  remember  nothing  of 
what  then  happened  until,  in  the  evening,  I 
suddenly  became  aware  that  I  was  at  a  gay 
dinner  party,  drinking  wine  —  which  is  contrary 
to  my  principles  —  and,  what  was  far  worse, 
f2711 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

smoking  a  cigarette.  Never  in  my  life  had  I 
done  such  a  thing,  and  my  humihation  at  the 
discovery  was  deep  and  keen. 

"  I  assure  you,  on  my  honor,  that  I  have  not 
the  least  recollection  of  accepting  an  invitation 
to  dine  out,  of  dressing  for  dinner,  or  of  leaving 
the  house  to  attend  the  party.  Everything  is  a 
blank  to  me  from  the  moment  I  went  to  my 
room,  in  the  afternoon,  until  I  came  to  my  senses, 
several  hours  afterward,  to  find  a  lively  group 
about  me,  a  wineglass  at  my  plate,  and  a  half- 
smoked  cigarette  in  my  fingers.  Tell  me.  Doctor 
Prince,  am  I  going  insane?  " 

The  physician  hastened  to  reassure  her,  but 
nevertheless  he  felt  seriously  alarmed.  It  was 
evident  that  she  was  in  a  thoroughly  dissociated 
condition,  and  that  she  had  become,  so  to  speak, 
a  battleground  on  which  was  to  be  fought  out 
the  weirdest  and  most  uncanny  of  conflicts  — 
a  duel  between  two  separate  selves  for  absolute 
supremacy  in  the  use  of  the  organs  of  her  body. 

Further,  it  soon  developed  that  the  advantage 
would  lie  with  the  secondary  seK  —  which  Doctor 
Prince  called  her  B  self  —  because,  although  her 
[272] 


THE  SINGULAR  CASE  OF  BCA 

ordinary,  or  A  self,  suffered  from  amnesia,  or 
loss  of  memory,  regarding  her  actions  when  in 
the  B  state,  the  B  self  had  a  memory  extending 
over  both  states.  The  mental  agony  growing  out 
of  this  recurring  forgetfulness  on  A's  part  may 
readily  be  imagined.  As  the  patient  herself  has 
since  expressed  it,  in  an  autobiographical  account 
written  at  Doctor  Prince's  request:  ^ 

"  The  amnesia  made  life  very  difficult;  indeed, 
except  for  the  help  you  gave  me,  I  think  it  would 
have  been  impossible,  and  that  I  should  have 
gone  truly  mad.  How  can  I  describe  or  give  any 
clear  idea  of  what  it  is  to  wake  suddenly,  as  it 
were,  and  not  to  know  the  day  of  the  week,  the 
time  of  the  day,  or  why  one  is  in  a  given  position? 
I  would  come  to  myself  as  A,  perhaps  on  the 
street,  with  no  idea  of  where  I  had  been,  or 
where  I  was  going;  fortunate  if  I  found  myself 
alone,  for  if  I  was  carrying  on  a  conversation  I 
knew  nothing  of  what  it  had  been;  fortunate,  in- 

^  This  autobiographical  account  was  first  published  in  the 
Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology.  Afterwards  it  was  brought 
out  in  book  form  by  Richard  G.  Badger,  the  Boston  publisher, 
under  the  title,  "  My  Life  as  a  Dissociated  Personality,"  and 
with  an  introduction  by  Doctor  Prince.  It  is  an  account  well 
worth  reading  by  aU  students  of  psychology. 

[  273  ] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

deed,  in  that  case,  if  I  did  not  contradict  some- 
thing I  had  said,  for,  as  B,  my  attitude  toward 
all  things  was  quite  the  opposite  of  that  taken 
by  A." 

Picture  to  yourself,  my  reader,  how  you  would 
feel  if,  for  a  few  hours  almost  every  day,  and 
sometimes  for  whole  days  at  a  stretch,  you  be- 
came virtually  nonexistent,  yet  were  made  to 
realize,  from  what  your  friends  told  you,  that  a 
something  or  a  somebody  had  taken  possession 
of  your  organism,  and  was  veritably  acting  in 
your  place,  and  in  a  way  utterly  unlike  your 
natural  self.  This  was  the  state  of  affairs  with 
Doctor  Prince's  luckless  patient.  In  moods, 
tastes,  points  of  view,  habits  of  thought,  and 
controlling  ideas,  her  secondary  personality  was 
the  very  reverse  of  that  which  had  been  dominant 
when  she  first  sought  medical  advice. 

There  even  were  pronounced  physical  differ- 
ences. WTienever  she  was  in  the  A  state,  she 
was  extremely  neurasthenic,  being  afflicted  now 
by  one,  now  by  another,  of  the  multifarious 
functional  disturbances  that  accompany  neu- 
rasthenia, and  being  exhausted  by  the  slightest 
[274] 


THE  SINGULAR  CASE  OF  BCA 

effort.  A  walk  of  a  few  hundred  yards  would  be 
almost  enough  to  prostrate  her. 

In  the  B  state,  on  the  contrary,  she  did  not 
know  the  meaning  of  the  word  "  pain,"  and  was 
seemingly  incapable  of  feeling  fatigue.  She 
would  walk  for  miles  without  experiencing  the 
slightest  distress,  was  constantly  on  the  go,  and 
appeared  to  be  in  every  way  an  exceptionally 
robust,  healthy  woman.  Thus,  physically,  she 
was  —  as  B  —  a  decided  improvement  over  her- 
self as  A.  But  with  respect  to  psychical  differ- 
ences it  was  altogether  another  matter. 

In  the  A  state,  she  was  kind,  considerate  of 
others,  self-sacrificing,  animated  by  a  keen  sense 
of,  and  devotion  to,  duty;  profoundly  stirred  by 
any  tale  of  sorrow  or  suffering,  and  most  con- 
scientious— -if  anything,  overconscientious,  being 
tortured  at  times  in  an  extraordinary  degree  by 
moral  doubts.  In  the  B  state,  she  was  selfish, 
thoughtless,  and  cold;  one  might  almost  say  de- 
void of  human  feeling.  Here  is  the  way  she 
herself  has  put  it: 

"As  B,  I  felt  no  emotion,  except  that  of  pleas- 
ure, using  the  word  pleasure  as  meaning  a  '  good 
[275] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

time  '  —  social  gayety,  driving,  motoring,  walk- 
ing, boating,  etc.;  but  my  enjoyment  of  these 
things  was  very  keen.  As  B,  I  was  always  the 
gayest  of  the  company,  but  for  people  I  cared 
nothing.  The  little  acts  of  affection  which  we  all 
perform  in  daily  home  life  I  never  thought  of. 
The  habit  of  shaking  hands  with  one's  friends, 
kissing  or  embracing  those  nearer  and  dearer, 
had  no  meaning  to  me.  Ordinarily,  I  think, 
when  one  shakes  hands  with  a  friend,  one  feels 
the  individuality  of  the  person,  more  or  less,  and 
the  clasp  of  hands  means  something;  but,  as  B, 
it  meant  no  more  to  me  than  clasping  a  piece 
of  wood,  and  the  acts  of  shaking  hands,  embracing, 
or  kissing  were  all  alike  —  it  made  no  difference 
to  me  which  I  did  —  one  meant  just  as  much  as 
the  other.  This  lack  of  feeling  applied  only  to 
people,  for  I  loved  the  outside  world;  the  trees, 
the  water,  the  sky,  and  the  wind  seemed  to  be 
a  very  part  of  myself.  But  the  emotions  by 
which  as  A  I  was  torn  to  shreds,  as  B  I  did  not 
feel  at  all." 

In  still  further  contrast,  this  most  remarkable 
young  woman,  when  in  the  B  state,  was  giddy, 
[276] 


THE  SINGULAR  CASE  OF  BCA 

irresponsible,  and  frivolous.  In  the  A  state, 
she  was  most  serious-minded  and  intellectual, 
being  fond  of  reading  such  excellent  literature  as 
the  works  of  Shakespeare,  Hugo,  Ibsen,  Tolstoi, 
and  Maeterlinck.  All  this,  B  found  very  tiresome, 
and  cared  only  for  the  lightest  kind  of  fiction,  when 
she  read  at  all. 

In  matters  of  dress  and  social  pleasures,  A 
and  B  were  also  diametrically  opposed.  A  be- 
lieved that  she  ought  to  wear  black;  B,  who  seems 
never  to  have  given  a  thought  to  the  dead  hus- 
band, detested  black,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
a  really  abnormal  liking  for  white.  So  that,  as 
the  two  selves  alternated  in  control,  the  strange 
spectacle  was  presented  of  the  same  woman  at 
one  moment  arrayed  in  deep  mourning,  at  an- 
other dressed  in  some  light,  bright  gown. 

To  cap  the  climax,  B  took  a  malicious  pleasure 
in  tormenting  her  other  self  in  many  ways.  She 
made  engagements  which  she  knew  that,  as  A, 
she  would  not  like  to  keep;  she  cultivated  friend- 
ships with  people  with  whom,  as  A,  she  had  little 
desire  to  associate;  she  was  wastefully  extrava- 
gant, freely  spending  on  useless  articles  money 
[  277  ] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE   PSYCHICAL 

which,  as  A,  she  had  been  carefully  hoarding 
against  a  rainy  day;  she  indulged  in  innumerable 
petty,  but  annoying,  practical  jokes  at  A's  ex- 
pense. 

For  example:  A  would  often  wake  in  the 
morning  to  find  on  her  pillow  or  dressing-table 
notes  advising  her  jeeringly  to  "  cheer  up,"  to 
"  weep  no  more,"  and  not  to  "  bother  Doctor 
Prince  so  much."  These  notes  she  herself  had 
written  during  the  night,  having  changed  to  the 
B  state  while  she  slept,  awakened  as  B,  risen, 
and  penned  the  notes,  and  then  returned  to  bed, 
to  fall  asleep  once  more,  and,  in  the  morning, 
awake  as  A,  with  no  memory  of  what  she  had 
done  since  retiring. 

The  flood  of  notes  continuing,  she  began  to 
destroy  them  unread,  hoping  that  this  would 
discourage  B's  malicious  activity.  It  only  made 
matters  worse,  for  B  now  began  to  aflBx  the  notes 
to  the  center  of  her  mirror,  pasting  above  them 
inscriptions  warning  her  to  be  sure  to  read  them, 
and  declaring  that  they  contained  —  as  they 
sometimes  did  —  information  of  importance  to 
her. 

[278] 


THE  SINGULAR  CASE  OF  BCA 

But  the  best  idea  of  the  topsyturvy,  kaleido- 
scopic, almost  incredible  life  led  by  this  woman 
with  a  double  existence  may  be  given  by  quoting 
a  few  extracts  from  a  diary  kept  jointly  by  the 
two  personalities,  at  Doctor  Prince's  suggestion. 
Unique  as  a  record  of  human  experiences,  it  had 
a  distinctly  practical  value,  for  it  enabled  A 
to  keep  track  of  what  she  had  been  doing  while  B 
was  in  control.  B,  of  course,  had  no  need  of  it 
for  this  purpose,  since,  as  was  said,  she  did  not 
suffer  from  loss  of  memory,  like  A.  The  extracts 
quoted  are  not  always  in  chronological  order; 
but,  for  the  present  purpose,  that  is  unimpor- 
tant: 

"  I  am  here  again  to-night,  B,  I  am.  I  may  as 
well  tell  all  I  have  done,  I  suppose.  For  one 
thing,  I  had  a  facial  massage  —  there  is  no  need 
of  being  a  mass  of  wrinkles.  I  know  A  doesn't 
care  how  she  looks,  but  I  do.  The  Q's  spent  the 
evening  here,  and  I  smoked  a  cigarette.  Now,  A, 
don't  go  and  tell  Doctor  Prince;  you  don't  have 
to  tell  him  everything  —  you  do  it,  though.  I 
must  have  a  little  fun." 

"  I  have  struggled  through  another  day.  B 
[2791 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

has  told  what  she  did.  How  can  I  bear  it?  How 
explain?  I  am  so  humiliated,  so  ashamed.  Why 
should  I  do  things  which  so  mortify  my  pride? 
Quite  ill  all  day.  I  am,  as  usual,  paying  for  B's 
'  fun.'    It  is  not  to  be  borne." 

"  A  terrible  day  —  one  of  the  worst  for  a  long 
time.  I  cannot  live  this  way;  it  is  not  to  be 
expected.  I  am  so  confused.  I  have  lost  so 
much  time  now  that  I  can't  seem  to  catch  up. 
What  is  the  end  to  be?  What  will  become  of 
me?  " 

"  A  was  used  up,  and  had  to  stay  in  bed  all 
the  morning,  but  I  came  about  one  o'clock, 
and  Mrst  X  asked  me  to  motor  down  to  Z.  Had 
a  gorgeous  ride,  and  got  home  at  seven,  nearly 
famished,  for  A  had  eaten  nothing  all  day  — 
she  lives  on  coffee  and  somnos  —  nice  com- 
bination !  —  steak  and  French  fried  for  mine, 
please." 

"Good  gracious!  How  we  fly  around!  A 
has  been  ill  all  the  day,  could  not  sleep  last  night. 
I  hope  he  [Doctor  Prince]  won't  send  for  us,  for 
he  will  put  a  quietus  on  me,  and,  as  things  are 
now,  I  am  gaining  on  A.  Had  a  gay  evening  — 
[280] 


THE  SINGULAR  CASE  OF  BCA 

no  discussions  of  religion  or  psychology,  no  dis- 
secting of  hearts  and  souls  while  I  am  in  the 
flesh." 

"  I  wonder  if  A  is  really  dead  —  for  good  and 
all?  It  seems  like  it.  The  thought  rather 
frightens  me  some  way,  as  if  I  had  lost  my  bal- 
ance wheel.  She  wants  to  die,  she  really  does, 
for  she  thinks  it  to  herself  all  the  time.  I  wish  I 
were  myself  alone,  and  neither  A  nor  B;  I  can- 
not bear  to  hear  A  groan,  she  cannot  bear  my 
glee." 

"  Such  a  day!  A  got  away  from  me  for  a  little 
while,  and  tried  to  write  a  letter  to  Doctor  Prince. 
It  was  a  funny-looking  letter,  for  I  kept  saying  to 
her:  *  You  cannot  write,  you  cannot  move  your 
hand,'  but  she  had  enough  will  power  to  write 
some,  and  direct  it.  The  efifort  used  her  up, 
however,  and  I  came,  and  the  letter  was  not 
mailed." 

"  I  am  too  much  bewildered  to  write.  I  have 
succeeded  in  writing  Doctor  Prince.  If  I  can 
only  mail  it!  Oh,  but  I  am  tired!  Such  an  awful 
struggle!  " 

"  Another  queer  thing  happened  to-day.  I 
[281] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

have  not  been  to  the  cemetery  for  a  long  time, 
so  started  to  go  there.  I  had  gone  only  a  little 
way  when  I  began  to  feel  that  I  could  not  go  on. 
I  do  not  mean  that  I  did  not  wish  to,  but  that  I 
could  not  easily  move  my  feet  in  that  direction. 
It  was  as  if  some  physical  force  was  restraining 
me,  or  like  walking  against  a  heavy  wind.  I 
kept  on,  however,  and  finally  reached  the  en- 
trance; but  farther  I  found  it  impossible  to  go. 
I  was  held  —  could  not  move  my  feet  one  inch 
in  that  direction.  I  set  my  will,  and  said  to  my- 
seK:  'I  will  go,  I  can  go,  and  I  will!'  But  I 
could  not  do  it.  I  began  to  feel  very  tired  — 
exhausted  —  and  turned  back.  As  soon  as  I 
turned  away,  I  had  no  trouble  in  walking,  but 
I  was  very  tired." 

These  last  paragraphs  refer  to  a  phase  of  the 
case  which  was,  from  the  standpoint  both  of  the 
patient  and  Doctor  Prince,  one  of  its  most  serious 
and  mysterious  features.  Although  B,  try  as  she 
might  —  and  she  undoubtedly  tried  hard  enough 
—  could  not  permanently  oust  the  A  self,  and 
had  to  be  content  with  manifesting  as  an  alter- 
nating personality,  it  was  none  the  less  |:he  fact 
[282] 


THE  SINGULAR  CASE  OF  BCA 

that,  even  when  A  was  uppermost,  B  was  able 
to  exercise,  from  some  subconscious  region,  a 
certain  amount  of  influence,  often  impelling  A 
to  do  things  contrary  to  her  inclinations. 

The  consequence  was  that  A  suffered  fearfully 
from  what  seemed  to  be  aboulia,  or  paralysis  of 
will,  somewhat  similar  to  that  experienced  by 
Doctor  Pierre  Janet's  patient,  Marcelle,  de- 
scribed in  the  preceding  chapter.  The  cemetery 
episode  was  only  one  of  many  incidents,  when, 
overpowered  by  some  force  she  could  not  under- 
stand, and  which  was  actually  the  superior  will 
of  B,  she  was  unable  to  carry  out  projects  she 
wished  to  execute,  or  was  made  to  perform  acts 
not  at  all  to  her  liking. 

The  diary  is  full  of  allusions  to  this  subcon- 
scious mastery  of  A  by  B.  Scores  of  times,  B 
influenced  her  to  read  some  particular  book  she 
—  B  —  wished  to  read,  or  to  go  out  for  a  walk 
when  she  —  A  —  wished  to  remain  at  home. 
Naturally  A  began  to  consider  herself  change- 
able and  weak-minded. 

"  One  day,"  B  writes,  "  it  was  raining  and 
she  did  not  want  to  go  out,  but  I  felt  that  I  could 
[  283  1 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

not  stay  in  the  house  another  minute.  So  I 
willed  that  she  should  go  to  walk,  and  she  changed 
her  clothes  and  went  out.  She  thought:  '  What 
nonsense  this  is  to  go  out  in  this  rain!  I  wish 
I  knew  what  I  wanted  to  do  five  minutes  at  a 
time.'  She  would  thmk:  'I  guess  I  will  go  to 
walk.'  And  then  she  would  think:  '  No,  I  don't 
want  to  go  out  in  all  this  rain.'  Then,  in  a  few 
minutes:  '  I  believe  I  loill  go  to  walk,'  etc.  And 
finally  she  went,  more  for  peace  of  mind  than 
anything  else." 

Frequently,  moreover,  the  subconscious  willing 
to  afi'ect  A's  conduct,  resulted  in  completely 
effacing  A,  and  allowing  B  to  reemerge  sponta- 
neously, in  full  control. 

Thus,  there  was  a  dinner  party  which  B  was 
anxious  to  attend,  but  while  A  was  dressing  she 
—  A  —  decided  she  would  not  go,  and  started 
across  the  room  to  telephone  and  say  she  would 
not  be  present.  At  once  B  subconsciously  began 
to  think:  "  I  want  to  go,"  "  You  must  go." 
And  poor  A  first  became  very  much  confused, 
then  faded  away  entirely,  with  the  result  that 
the  telephone  message  was  not  sent,  and  B  was 
[284] 


THE  SINGULAR   CASE   OF  BCA 

free  to  attend  the  party,  and  enjoy  another  of 
the  "  good  times "  that  meant  so  much  to 
her. 

Where  A  suffered  most  of  all  by  reason  of  this 
subtle  power  of  B  to  influence  her  actions,  lay 
in  the  difficulty  she  had  in  communicating  with 
Doctor  Prince,  and  in  going  to  him  for  treatment. 
B  well  knew  that  her  career  would  come  to  an 
end  the  moment  Doctor  Prince  succeeded  in  re- 
associating  his  patient's  disintegrated  personality, 
and  she  fought  desperately  to  preserve  her  ex- 
istence, repeatedly  preventing  A,  as  mentioned 
in  the  extracts  quoted  from  the  diary,  from  tele- 
phoning to  Doctor  Prince,  writing  to  him,  or 
visiting  him;  all  of  which  greatly  increased  A's 
confusion,  misery,  and  unhappiness. 

But,  as  it  chanced,  although  Doctor  Prince 
was  earnestly  desirous  of  effectually  and  forever 
suppressing  B,  he  was  not  at  all  desirous  of  doing 
this  for  A's  sake;  and  was,  in  fact,  as  anxious 
to  get  rid  of  A  as  he  was  to  get  rid  of  B. 

For,  to  inject  a  new  complication  into  this 
most  complicated  affair,  he  had  by  this  time 
discovered  that  A  had  no  more  right  to  considera- 
[285] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

tion  than  B,  since  A  no  more  than  B  represented 
the  patient's  normal  personahty.  His  searching 
study  of  the  case  —  the  duel  between  A  and  B 
lasted  a  year  or  more  —  had  convinced  him  that 
there  had  been  not  a  single,  but  a  double,  disso- 
ciation of  personality;  and  that  the  normal  self, 
in  consequence  first  of  the  shock  occasioned  by 
the  husband's  illness  and  death,  and  afterward 
of  the  shock  that  brought  the  B  personality  to 
the  fore,  had  been  violently  relegated  to  some 
obscure  department  of  the  patient's  subconscious- 
ness, where,  however,  it  assuredly  was  existent, 
and  where  it  was  an  intensely  interested,  if  help- 
less, spectator  of  the  struggle  being  waged  for 
control  by  the  two  usurping  selves. 

To  recall  this  lost  self,  which  he  designated  as 
C,  was  Doctor  Prince's  paramount  object;  and, 
after  many  months  of  weary  and  futile  effort,  he 
ultimately  succeeded.  One  day,  after  he  had 
plunged  his  patient  into  deep  hypnosis,  he  saw 
that  she  had  undergone  a  striking  change.  Phys- 
ically she  seemed  much  as  in  the  B  state,  though 
not  so  boisterously  vigorous;  mentallj^  she  was 
like  A,  thoughtful  and  intellectual,  but  happily 
[  286  ] 


THE  SINGULAR  CASE  OF  BCA 

devoid  of  the  vacillation  and  morbid  overcon- 
scientiousness  that  had  made  A's  life  a  misery  to 
herself,  and  most  difficult  to  all  who  came  in 
contact  with  her. 

Questioned,  she  showed  that  in  this  new  state 
she  possessed  a  complete  memory  for  both  the 
A  and  the  B  states,  and  was  closer  to  nor- 
mal than  either.  In  Doctor  Prince's  mind,  no 
doubt  remained  —  he  had  found  C,  the  missing 
self,  the  self  which,  after  nearly  two  years  of 
exile,  had  promise  of  coming  once  more  into  its 
own. 

It  had  yet  to  be  reestablished  in  sovereignty 
—  no  easy  task,  as  the  event  proved.  Not  many 
hours  after  its  first  emergence,  B  once  more  put 
in  an  appearance,  wrathful,  vehement,  and  de- 
fiant, angrily  challenging  Doctor  Prince  to  sup- 
press it  if  he  could.  Then  came  A,  and  soon  a 
momentary  return  of  C,  quickly  put  to  flight, 
however,  by  the  still  powerful  will  of  B.  In 
short,  the  conflict  now  became  triangular,  with 
B  and  C  active  opponents,  and  A  a  participant 
because  she  could  not  help  herself. 

The  invaluable  diary  affords  a  clear  view  of 
[287] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

the  chaos  that  prevailed,  and  of  the  increasing 
effectiveness  of  Doctor  Prince's  vigorous  re- 
enforcement,  by  hypnotic  suggestion,  of  the 
claims  of  C.  We  find,  for  instance,  B  lamenting, 
after  several  days'  banishment: 

"  Well,  once  more  I  am  permitted  to  write  in 
this  diary.  After  we  got  home,  C  went  to  pieces. 
I  never  saw  such  a  lot!  And  then  poor  old  A 
came  again,  in  anguish,  wringing  of  hands,  finally 
tears.  Then,  thank  goodness,  I  came  myself! 
I  cannot  see  why  Doctor  Prince  would  rather 
have  that  emotional,  hysterical  set  than  to  have 
vie!  It  passes  comprehension.  I  know  every- 
thing, always,  and  they  know  only  a  few  things 
for  a  few  minutes." 

The  note  of  woe  and  panic  sounded  here  was 
amply  justified.  Little  by  little,  A  and  B  became 
less  in  evidence,  until  at  length  they  were  heard 
from  no  more,  and  C  —  the  normal  self  —  was 
left  dominant,  with  a  complete  restoration  to 
physical  as  well  as  mental  health. 

But,  the  reader  may  well  ask,  what  does  all 
this  mean.''  Can  there  really  be  more  than  one 
seK,  one  personality,  in  human  beings?  If  so, 
[288] 


THE  SINGULAR  CASE  OF  BCA 

what  are  we?  What  is  the  true  nature  of  man? 
These  are  questions  that  cannot  be  avoided,  and 
in  my  next  and  closing  chapter  I  will  make  some 
attempt  to  answer  them. 


[289 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   LARGER    SELF 

IT  is  barely  fifty  years  since  the  problem  of 
supreme  interest  to  mankind  —  the  problem 
of  the  nature,  possibilities,  and  destiny  of  man 
—  began  to  be  studied  in  a  really  scientific  way ; 
yet  in  that  half  century  more  progress  has  been 
made  toward  its  solution  than  in  all  the  previous 
thousands  of  years  that  have  elapsed  since  man 
first  asked  himself:  What  am  I?  What  are  my 
capabilities?  Shall  I  be,  after  I  have  ceased  to 
exist  here  on  earth? 

Armed  with  instruments  of  the  most  delicate 
precision,  devising  novel  methods  for  exploring 
the  body  and  the  mind  in  their  mutual  ramifica- 
tions, modern  investigators  have  thrown  a  flood 
of  new  and  largely  unexpected  light  on  the  great 
questions  at  issue,  and  have  opened  vistas  of 
hope  and  aspiration  and  actual  achievement 
[2901 


THE  LARGER  SELF 

undreamed  of  by  the  vanished  peoples  of  bygone 
times. 

At  first  sight,  to  be  sure,  much  of  their  effort 
appears  to  be  irreparably,  even  wantonly,  de- 
structive, and  perhaps  nowhere  more  so  than  in 
the  blows  they  have  dealt  at  the  traditional 
conception  of  the  central  fact  in  man's  psychical 
make-up  —  that  intangible  entity  variously  known 
as  the  ego,  the  seK,  the  personality,  animated 
and  governed  by  an  indwelling,  unifying  prin- 
ciple, the  soul.  Every  man  instinctively  believes 
that  there  is  only  one  of  him.  He  feels  that,  no 
matter  how  his  thoughts,  his  sensations,  his 
emotions  may  change  in  the  course  of  time,  he 
himself  will  remain  essentially  and  permanently 
the  same.  Putting  this  belief  into  metaphysical 
language,  he  declares,  with  the  excellent  Thomas 
Reid: 

"  The  conviction  which  every  man  has  of  his 
identity  .  .  ,  needs  no  aid  of  philosophy  to 
strengthen  it;  and  no  philosophy  can  weaken  it 
without  first  producing  some  degree  of  insanity. 
.  .  .  The  identity  of  a  person  is  a  perfect  identity; 
wherever  it  is  real  it  admits  of  no  degrees;  and 
[291] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

it  is  impossible  that  a  person  should  be  in  part 
the  same  and  in  part  different,  because  a  person 
is  a  monad,  and  is  not  divisible  into  parts."  ^ 

But  the  modern  explorer  of  the  nature  of  man, 
replies : 

"  You  are  wrong,  my  friend.  Your  seK  is  very 
far  from  being  the  simple,  stable  unity  that  you 
imagine  it  to  be.  In  reality  it  is  most  complex 
and  most  unstable,  easily  breaking  up,  and  some- 
times breaking  up  so  completely  that  it  may  even 
be  replaced  by  an  entirely  new  self.  You  do  not 
believe  this?  I  can  prove  it  to  you  from  the 
facts  not  only  of  scientific  experiment,  but  also 
of  everyday  observation." 

Naturally,  in  support  of  this  statement,  stress 
would  be  laid  on  instances  resembling  the  strange 
case  of  BCA,  just  narrated.  And  although  cases 
at  all  similar  to  the  BCA  affair  are  extremely  un- 
common there  are  a  number  on  record  evidencing 
in  other  ways  so-called  "  total  dissociation  of 
personality."     For  example: 

A  prosperous  Philadelphia  plumber,  a  man  of 

1  Thomas  Reid's  "  Essa}^  on  the  Intellectual  Powers*  of 
Man,"  pp.  228-231  (James  Walker's  edition  of  1850). 

[2921 


THE  LARGER  SELF 

exemplary  habits  and  seemingly  in  good  health, 
left  his  home  one  day  to  take  a  short  walk.  From 
that  moment  he  disappeared  as  completely  as 
though  the  earth  had  opened  and  swallowed  him. 
There  was  no  reason  why  he  should  abscond  or 
commit  suicide,  and  the  general  belief  was  that 
he  had  met  with  foul  play.  Rewards  were  offered, 
and  detectives  employed,  but  no  trace  of  him 
could  be  found.  His  wife,  giving  him  up  for 
dead,  sold  his  business  and  removed  with  their 
children  to  Chicago. 

Nearly  two  years  later,  the  workmen  in  a  tin- 
shop  in  a  Southern  city  were  startled  one  morning 
by  the  conduct  of  one  of  their  number,  who, 
dropping  his  tools  and  pressing  his  hand  to  his 
head  in  a  bewildered  way,  sprang  to  his  feet,  and 
cried : 

"My  God!  Where  am  I?  How  did  I  get 
here?    This  isn't  my  shop!  " 

The  foreman,  thinking  he  was  drunk,  or  had 
gone  insane,  ran  forward  to  pacify  him. 

"Steady,  Smith,  steady!"  he  exclaimed. 
"  You'll  be  all  right  in  a  minute." 

The  other  only  stared  at  him  wildly. 
[293] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

"  Why  do  you  call  me  Smith?  "  he  demanded. 
"  That  isn't  my  name." 

"  That's  the  name  you've  gone  by  since  you 
came  among  us  six  months  ago." 

"  Six  months  ago!  You're  crazy,  man.  It 
isn't  half  an  hour  since  I  left  my  wife  and  little 
ones  to  get  a  breath  of  fresh  air  before  dinner." 

"  Look  here,"  said  the  foreman,  pressing  him 
gently  into  a  seat,  "  where  do  you  suppose  you 
are,  anyway?  " 

"  Why,  in  Philadelphia,  of  course." 

It  was  indeed  the  Philadelphia  plumber,  whose 
missing  self  had  returned  to  him  as  suddenly  and 
as  mysteriously  as  it  had  vanished.  A  few  days 
more  and  he  was  happily  reunited  with  the 
family  that  had  so  long  believed  him  to  be  among 
the  dead.^ 

Where,  it  may  well  be  asked,  was  this  man's 
original  self  during  these  two  years?  What  had 
become  of  his  normal  ego,  the  ego  of  which  alone 
he  had  formerly  been  aware?     Yet  at  no  time 

1  Boris  Sidis's  "  Multiple  PereonaUty,"  pp.  365-368.  This 
book,  by  one  of  the  foremost  American  psychopathologists, 
should  be  read  by  all  students  of  abnormal  psychology. 

[2941 


THE  LARGER   SELF 

throughout  the  period  when  he  lacked  knowledge 
of  his  identity,  and  was  without  memory  for  his 
earher  hfe  and  social  relationships,  did  he  display 
the  slightest  sign  of  mental  aberration.  He  was 
as  sane  and  real  to  himself  and  to  those  with 
whom  he  came  into  contact,  and  was  as  able  to 
take  care  of  himself  and  earn  a  sufficient  living, 
as  he  had  ever  been  in  the  years  before  he  ex- 
perienced the  remarkable  psychical  upheaval 
that  had  substituted  an  alien,  a  "  secondary  " 
self  in  the  place  of  the  self  he  had  always  been 
and  known. 

A  blow,  an  illness,  a  fright,  the  stress  of  a  pro- 
longed emotion  —  any  one  of  several  causes  may 
bring  about  this  weird  condition,  of  which  I  could 
give  illustrative  cases  to  a  number  that  would 
fill  many  pages  of  this  book.^  Sometimes,  though 
fortunately  seldom,  there  may  be  —  as  in  the 
case  of  BCA  —  a  double  or  even  a  multiple  dis- 
sociation, resulting  in  the  development  of  two, 
three,  four,  or  more  secondary  selves,  which 
alternate  with  one  another  in  a  way  productive 

1  A  collection  of  such  cases  will  be  found  in  my  book,  "  Scien- 
tific Mental  Healing,"  pp.  124-155. 

[  295  ] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

of  the  most  intense  mental  agony  to  the  helpless 
victim. 

But,  after  aU,  it  is  not  necessary  to  insist  on 
such  extreme  instances  in  order  to  demonstrate 
the  essential  instability  and  divisibility  of  that 
which  we  commonly  have  in  mind  when  we  speak 
of  the  "  self."  Dissociation  of  personality  is  in 
evidence  every  day  in  the  pathetic  symptoma- 
tology of  the  various  insanities,  and  in  the  chronic, 
if  often  masked  and  unrecognized,  memory  lapses 
universal  among  sufferers  from  the  manifold 
affections  of  hysteria,  such  as  we  dealt  with  in 
the  chapter  on  "  Dissociation  and  Disease."  It 
is  in  evidence  in  the  victims  of  alcoholic  and  drug 
excesses,  who,  in  a  very  literal  sense,  may  be- 
come "  another  person,"  and  say  and  do  things 
quite  alien  from  their  usual  self,  and  concerning 
which  their  usual  self  afterward  has  no  knowledge. 

Even  normal  sleep,  albeit  a  wise  provision 
for  the  rest  and  strengthening  of  the  organism, 
involves  dissociation.  Still  more  strikingly  is 
dissociation  evident  in  the  phenomena  of  the 
state  of  artificial  sleep  induced  by  hypnotism. 

It  would  carry  us  too  far  from  the  point  now 
[296] 


THE  LARGER  SELF 

under  consideration  to  enter  here  into  any  dis- 
cussion of  the  nature  and  mechanism  of  hypno- 
tism, that  still  widely  misunderstood  but  mar- 
velous agency,  not  simply  for  therapeutic  pur- 
poses, but  for  the  study  and  exploration  of  man's 
inmost  being.  The  thing  of  immediate  impor- 
tance is  the  fact  that  under  the  influence  of 
hypnotism  a  person  invariably  develops  a  self 
more  or  less  different  from  his  ordinary  waking, 
conscious  self. 

Hypnotized,  he  is  to  all  outward  seeming 
oblivious  to  everything  transpiring  around  him. 
But  let  the  hypnotist  speak  to  him,  question 
him,  and  he  instantly  responds  with  answers  so 
intelligent  as  to  mdicate  that,  in  some  respects, 
at  all  events,  he  is  more  alert  and  keen  than  when 
wide  awake.  Curiously  enough,  however,  com- 
mands and  suggestions  given  to  him  are,  within 
certain  limitations,  accepted  and  acted  upon, 
no  matter  how  disagreeable  or  absurd  they  may 
be. 

Later,  when  awakened,  he  is  in  precisely  the 
same  position  as  are  victims  of  spontaneous  dis- 
sociation —  such  as  the  Philadelphia  plumber, 
[297] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

and  Doctor  Prince's  puzzling  neurasthene,  BCA. 
That  is  to  say,  he  is  unable  to  give  any  account 
of  what  he  has  said  and  done  during  hypnosis. 
Thus  the  effect  of  hypnotism  is  to  produce  a 
psychical  cleavage  so  profound  as  to  involve 
the  action,  within  a  single  organism,  of  two 
separate   selves. 

This  has  been  demonstrated  by  a  long  line  of 
scientific  investigators,  including  physicians  and 
psychologists  of  international  reputation.  More- 
over, these  investigators  have  shown  that,  even 
after  a  person  has  been  brought  out  of  the  hyp- 
notic state,  the  self  evoked  by  hypnotism  may  in 
some  inscrutable  way  continue  operant  without 
his  suspecting  for  a  moment  its  existence  and 
influence. 

Impressive  proof  of  this  is  found  in  the  execu- 
tion of  what  are  known  as  post-hypnotic  com- 
mands. A  hypnotized  person  is  told  that,  after 
being  de-hypnotized,  he  is  to  perform  a  certain 
act  on  receiving  a  certain  signal,  or  at  the  expira- 
tion of  a  certain  time.  As  usual,  when  restored 
to  his  conscious,  waking  state,  he  remembers 
nothing  of  the  command  imposed  on  him;  but 
[298] 


THE  LARGER  SELF 

when  the  signal  is  given,  or  the  appointed 
time  arrives,  he  feels  an  irresistible,  and  to 
him  inexplicable,  impulse  to  carry  out  the  sug- 
gested idea. 

Thus,  in  one  series  of  fifty-five  experiments 
made  by  the  foremost  English  authority  on 
hypnotism.  Doctor  J.  Milne  Bramwell,  the  sub- 
ject, a  young  woman  of  nineteen,  was  ordered 
to  perform  a  specified  act  at  the  end  of  a  varying 
number  of  minutes,  ranging  from  three  hundred 
to  more  than  twenty  thousand.  Not  once,  on 
being  de-hypnotized,  did  she  remember  what  she 
had  been  told  to  do,  although  offered  a  liberal 
reward  if  she  could  recall  the  commands  given 
her. 

Nevertheless,  only  two  of  the  fifty-five  experi- 
ments were  complete  failures,  while  in  forty-five 
she  executed  the  commands  at  exactly  the  mo- 
ment designated,  and  in  the  remainder  was  at  no 
time  more  than  five  minutes  out  of  the  way.  As 
to  the  complete  failures,  Doctor  Bramwell  as- 
certained that  in  one  instance  she  had  mistaken 
the  suggestion  given,  and  in  the  other  the  cir- 
cumstances were  such  that  the  command  might 
[299] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

have  been  executed  without  his  being  aware 
of  it.^ 

Equally  astonishing  results  are  reported  by 
the  brilliant  group  of  Frenchmen  who,  uniting 
under  the  direction  of  Doctor  A.  A.  Liebeault, 
were  the  first  to  make  an  organized  investigation 
of  the  cause  and  effects,  the  possibilities  and 
limitations,  of  hypnotism.  One  of  these  French 
investigators,  Doctor  Hippolyte  Bemheim,  once 
hypnotized  an  old  soldier,  and  asked  him: 

"  On  what  day  in  the  first  week  of  October 
will  you  be  at  liberty?  " 

"  On  the  Wednesday." 

"  Well,"  said  Doctor  Bemheim,  "  on  that  day 
you  will  pay  a  visit  to  Doctor  Liebeault;  you 
will  find  in  his  oflBce  the  president  of  the  republic, 
who  will  present  you  with  a  medal  and  a  pen- 
sion." 

The  soldier  was  then  awakened  and  questioned 
as  to  what  had  been  said  to  him,  but  could  re- 
member nothing.    However,  on  Wednesday,  Octo- 


1  These  experiments  by  Doctor  Bramwell  were  first  reported 
by  him  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research, 
vol.  xii,  pp.  176-203. 

[3001 


THE  LARGER  SELF 

ber  3,  Doctor  Liebeault  wrote  to  Doctor  Bern- 
heim: 

"  Your  soldier  has  just  called  at  my  house.  He 
walked  to  my  bookcase,  and  made  a  respectful 
salute;  then  I  heard  him  utter  the  words:  '  Your 
excellency! '  Soon  he  held  out  his  right  hand, 
and  said:  'Thanks,  your  excellency.'  I  asked 
him  to  whom  he  was  speaking.  *  Why,  to  the 
president  of  the  republic'  He  turned  again  to 
the  bookcase  and  saluted,  then  went  away. 
The  witnesses  to  the  scene  naturally  asked  me 
what  that  madman  was  doing.  I  answered  that 
he  was  not  mad,  but  as  reasonable  as  they  or  I, 
only  another  person  was  acting  in  him."  ^ 

Compare  with  this  an  amusing  little  story  told 
by  Doctor  Prince. 

"  Wishing  to  test  the  compelling  influence  of 
post-hypnotic  commands,"  he  says,^  "  I  sug- 
gested to  one  of  my  subjects,  Mrs.  R.,  after  she 
was  hypnotized,  that  on  the  following  day,  when 
she  went  down  to  dinner,  she  would  put  on  her 
bonnet,  and  keep  it  on  during  the  whole  of  dinner 

* "  De  la  Suggestion  dans  I'Etat  Hypnotique,"  p.  29. 
Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  vol.  cxxii,  p.  463., 

[301] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

time.  The  next  day  I  received  a  letter  from  her 
in  which  she  said: 

"  '  I  think  I  am  getting  insane.  At  dinner  time 
I  would  wear  my  hat  during  the  meal.' 

*'  On  further  inquiry,  I  obtained  the  following 
story,  which  I  give  substantially  in  the  original 
language: 

"  '  As  I  was  going  in  to  dinner,  my  girl  asked 
me  what  I  was  going  out  for.  "  I  am  not,"  says 
I.  "  I  am  going  to  eat  my  dinner."  "  Then 
what  have  you  got  your  hat  on  for?  "  says  she.  I 
put  my  hand  to  my  head,  and  there  was  my 
bonnet.  "  Lord,  Mamie!  "  says  I,  "  am  I  going 
crazy?  "  "  No,  mother,"  she  says,  "  you  often 
do  foolish  things."  I  began  to  get  frightened, 
but  took  off  my  bonnet  and  went  into  the  next 
room  to  dinner.' 

"  Then  the  younger  child  similarly  asked  her 
where  she  was  going,  and  called  attention  to 
her  having  her  bonnet  on.  A  second  time  she 
raised  her  hand  to  her  head,  and  to  her  surprise 
found  that  her  bonnet  was  really  there.  She 
again  took  it  off,  and  later,  when  her  husband 
entered,  the  same  thing  was  repeated;  but  when 
[3021 


THE  LARGER  SELF 

she  found  her  bonnet  on  her  head  for  the  third 
time,  she  made  excuse  of  the  stormy  words  that 
ensued  to  declare  she  would  '  keep  it  on  now  till 
she  was  through.'  After  dinner,  being  alarmed, 
she  consulted  a  neighbor  about  it." 

But  the  longest  time  on  record  for  the  carrying 
out  of  a  post-hypnotic  suggestion  was  made  by 
a  subject  of  Doctor  Liegeois,  another  of  the  early 
French  investigators.  Doctor  Liegeois  hypno- 
tized a  young  man,  and  said  to  him : 

"  A  year  from  to-day  this  is  what  you  are  going 
to  do,  and  what  you  are  going  to  see:  You  will 
call  at  Doctor  Liebeault's  oflSce  in  the  morning, 
and  tell  him  that  you  have  come  to  thank  him 
and  Doctor  Liegeois  for  all  they  have  done  to 
improve  your  health.  While  you  are  talking  to 
him,  you  will  see  enter  the  room  a  dog  with  a 
monkey  riding  on  its  back.  They  will  perform 
a  thousand  tricks  that  will  amuse  you  very  much. 

"  Then  you  will  see  a  man  come  in,  leading  a 
great  American  grizzly  bear,  which  will  also 
perform  tricks.  It  will  be  a  tame  bear,  so  that 
you  will  not  be  at  all  frightened.  The  man  will 
be  delighted  at  recovering  his  trained  dog  and 
[303] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

monkey,  which  he  thought  he  had  lost.  Before 
he  leaves  you  will  borrow  a  few  cents  from  Doctor 
Liebeault  to  give  to  him." 

Doctor  Liegeois,  after  repeating  these  com- 
plicated and  absurd  directions,  awoke  the  young 
man,  and  by  cautious  questioning  ascertained 
that  his  memory  was  a  perfect  blank  for  all  that 
had  been  said  to  him  while  he  was  hypnotized. 
Great  care  was  taken  not  to  recall  to  his  mind 
at  any  time  the  command  given  to  him,  and  which 
his  hypnotic  self  was  expected  to  remember  and 
perform  on  the  appointed  day. 

Exactly  a  year  later,  at  nine  in  the  morning, 
Doctor  Liegeois  went  to  Doctor  Liebeault's 
office,  where  he  waited  half  an  hour,  and  then 
returned  home,  thinking  that  the  experiment  had 
failed.  But  at  ten  minutes  to  ten  the  young  man 
arrived.  There  was  nothing  about  his  appear- 
ance to  indicate  that  he  was  in  any  abnormal 
condition. 

He  greeted  Doctor  Liebeault,  explained  that  he 

had  come  to  thank  him  for  his  kindness  to  him, 

and  inquired  for  Doctor  Liegeois,  whom  he  said 

he  had  expected  to  find  there.     A  few  minutes 

[304] 


THE  LARGER  SELF 

afterward,  Doctor  Liegeois  having  meanwhile 
been  hastily  summoned,  the  young  man  cried 
out  that  a  monkey  had  just  come  in,  riding  on 
the  back  of  a  dog.  He  watched  the  antics  of  these 
imaginary  animals  with  great  interest,  laughing 
heartily,  and  describing  the  tricks  he  fancied  he 
saw  them  performing.  After  this,  he  announced 
the  arrival  of  a  man  who  was  evidently  the  owner 
of  the  monkey  and  the  dog,  and  he  begged  Doctor 
Liebeault  to  lend  him  a  little  money  to  reward 
the  man  for  the  amusement  his  animals  had 
given  him.    But  he  saw  no  bear. 

A  moment  later  he  was  conversing  with  the 
two  physicians,  in  evident  ignorance  of  all  that 
he  had  just  been  saying  and  doing.  He  angrily 
denied  that  there  had  been  any  animals  in  the 
room.  When  asked  why  he  himself  was  there, 
he  could  give  no  definite  reply.  Doctor  Liegeois 
immediately  put  him  into  the  hypnotic  state,  and 
demanded : 

"  Do  you  know  why  you  came  here  this  morn- 
ing.?  " 

"  Of  course  I  do." 

"  Why  was  it?  " 

[3051 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

"  Because  you  told  me  to." 

"  When?  " 

"  A  year  ago." 

"  But  you  did  not  come  at  nine  o'clock?  '* 

"  You  did  not  tell  me  to  come  at  nine  o'clock. 
You  said  to  come  at  exactly  a  year  from  the 
time  you  were  talking  to  me.  It  was  ten  minutes 
to  ten  when  you  gave  me  your  command." 

"  And  why  did  you  not  see  the  bear?  " 

"  Because  you  said  nothing  about  a  bear  when 
you  repeated  your  orders.  You  spoke  only  once 
of  a  bear.  Everything  else  you  spoke  of  twice. 
I  thought  you  had  changed  your  mind  about  the 
bear."  ^ 

Obviously,  the  hypnotic  self,  distinct  and 
different  though  it  is  from  the  primary,  waking 
self,  can  reason,  can  analyze,  can  draw  conclu- 
sions as  readily  as  the  conscious  self,  and  is,  to  put 
it  otherwise,  as  truly  a  self  as  the  conscious  self. 

Facts    like    these,    as    was   said,    have   caused 

^  Dr.  Liegeois's  account  of  his  many  hypnotic  experiments, 
as  given  in  his  "  De  la  Suggestion  et  du  Somnambulisme  dans 
leurs  Rapports  avec  la  Jurisprudence  et  la  M^decine  legale,'' 
forms  one  of  the  most  striking  contributions  to  the  literature 
of  hypnotism. 

[3061 


THE  LARGER  SELF 

numerous  investigators  to  question  the  validity 
of  the  hitherto  prevailing  view  of  human  per- 
sonality. The  self,  they  affirm,  is  no  single,  con- 
tinuous, permanent  entity.  On  the  contrary,  it 
is  merely  a  loosely  coordinated  aggregation  of 
mental  states,  forever  shifting  and  changing,  so 
that  the  seK  of  to-morrow  may  be  vastly  differ- 
ent from  the  self  of  to-day.  To  quote  Professor 
Ribot,  the  famous  scientist,  and  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  exponents  of  this  new  view  of  the 
self: 

"  The  unity  of  the  ego  is  not  the  unity  of  a 
single  entity  diffusing  itself  among  multiple 
phenomena;  it  is  the  coordination  of  a  certain 
number  of  states  perpetually  renascent,  and 
having  for  their  sole,  common  basis  the  vague 
feeling  of  the  body.  This  unity  does  not  diffuse 
itself  downward,  but  is  aggregated  by  ascent 
from  below;  it  is  not  an  initial,  but  a  terminal 
point." 

And  Ribot  adds  emphatically: 

"  It  is  the  organism,  with  the  brain,  its  supreme 
representative,  which  constitutes  the  real  per- 
sonality; comprising  in  itself  the  remains  of  all 
[307] 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

that  we  have  been  and  the  possibiHties  of  all 
that  we  shall  be.  The  whole  individual  character 
is  there  inscribed,  with  its  active  and  passive 
aptitudes,  its  sympathies  and  antipathies,  its 
genius,  its  talent  or  its  stupidity,  its  virtues  and 
its  vices,  its  torpor  or  its  activity."  * 

Or,  as  the  eminent  psychologist,  Alfred  Binet, 
declares : 

"  We  have  long  been  accustomed  by  habits  of 
speech,  fictions  of  law,  and  also  by  the  results 
of  introspection,  to  consider  each  person  as 
constituting  an  indivisible  unity.  Actual  re- 
searches utterly  modify  this  current  notion.  It 
seems  to  be  well  proven  nowadays  that  if  the 
unity  of  the  ego  be  real,  a  quite  different  definition 
should  be  applied  to  it.  It  is  not  a  single  entity; 
for,  if  it  were,  one  could  not  understand  how  in 
certain  circumstances  some  patients,  by  exagger- 
ating a  phenomenon  which  obviously  belongs 
to  normal  life,  can  unfold  several  different  per- 
sonalities.    A  thing  that   can   be  divided  must 

1  Ribot's  "  Les  Maladies  de  la  Personalite."  Quoted  from 
F.  W.  H.  Myers's  translation  in  his  "  Human  Personality  and 
its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death,"  vol.  i,  p.  10. 

f  308  1 


THE  LARGER  SELF 

consist  of  several  parts.  Should  a  personality  be 
able  to  become  double  or  triple,  this  would  be 
proof  that  it  is  compound,  a  grouping  of,  and  a 
resultant  from,  several  elements."  ^ 

But  the  brain,  which  Ribot  identifies  with  the 
personality,  is  a  mere  organ  of  the  body,  perish- 
ing with  the  body.  Does  it  follow  that  the  self 
perishes  with  bodily  death  .^^  Is  it  really  without 
an  abiding,  indwelling  principle  superior  to, 
and  independent  of,  the  physical  organism  —  in 
short,  a  soul  —  that  would  enable  it  to  survive 
the  final  catastrophe  of  earthly  existence?  Is 
man  soulless?    Does  death  end  personality? 

Aye,  those  who  hold  with  Ribot  would  reply. 
To  speak  of  a  soul  is,  in  their  view  of  the  case, 
sheer  mysticism,  since  "  the  ego  in  us  is  nothing 
more  than  the  functional  result  of  the  arrangement 
for  the  time  being  of  the  molecules  or  ions  of  our 
brain  matter." 

That  is  why,  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter, 

I  stated  that,  of  all  the  labors  of  the  modern 

investigators  of  the  nature  of  man,  none  would 

seem  to  be  so  irreparably  destructive  as  the  blows 

^  "Les  Alterations  de  la  Personnalit^,"  p.  316. 

[  309  1 


ADVENTURINGS  IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

they  have  dealt  at  the  traditional  conception 
of  human   personality. 

Yet,  when  we  probe  a  little  deeper,  it  will  be 
found  that  the  damage  is  not  so  irreparable  as 
would  at  first  appear;  nay,  it  will  even  be  found 
that  by  their  searching  inquiries,  the  advocates 
of  the  brain-stuff  theory  have  unwittingly  pro- 
vided stronger  reasons  than  were  at  any  previous 
time  available  for  insisting  both  on  the  actuality 
of  the  soul  and  the  fundamental  unity  and  con- 
tinuity of  the  ego. 

Undeniably,  it  is  necessary  to  modify  the  old 
conception  in  some  important  respects.  After 
the  discoveries  that  have  been  made  as  to  the 
disintegrating  effects  of  natural  and  artificially 
induced  sleep,  of  disease,  of  sudden  frights,  of 
profound  emotional  shocks,  of  alcohol  and  drugs, 
etc.,  it  is  idle  to  pretend  that  unity  and  continuity 
are  distinctive  characteristics  of  the  ordinary 
self  of  waking  life.  So  far  as  that  self  is  concerned, 
its  instability  and  divisibility  are  now  plainly 
evident. 

What,  however,  if  it  can  be  shown  that,  equally 
with  the  secondary  selves  that  may  and  so  often 

[310] 


THE  LARGER  SELF 

do  replace  it,  the  primary  self  is  only  part  of  a 
larger  self  —  a  self  which  persists  unchanged 
beneath  all  the  mutations  of  spontaneous  and 
experimental  occurrence?  In  that  case  it  will  at 
once  become  clear  that  the  situation  has  again 
changed  completely,  and  that  we  are  back  to  the 
traditional,  the  intuitive,  the  "  common-sense  " 
conception  of  personality,  with  the  single  dif- 
ference that  the  term  "  self  "  means  something 
broader  and  nobler  than  when  we  limit  it  to  the 
now  demonstrated  unstable,  and  ever-change- 
able self  of  ordinary  consciousness. 

And  it  is  precisely  to  such  a  view  of  the  self 
that  the  discoveries  of  the  modern  investigators, 
when  closely  scrutinized,  irresistibly  impel  us. 
If,  I  repeat,  they  have  shown  that  what  we  usually 
look  upon  as  the  self  is  liable  to  sudden  extinction, 
they  have  likewise  brought  to  light  abundant 
evidence  to  prove  that  there  is  none  the  less  an 
abiding  self,  a  seK  not  dominated  by  but  domi- 
nating the  organism,  and  unaffected  by  any  vicis- 
situdes that  may  befall  the  organism. 

To  be  sure,  it  must  be  said  that,  as  yet,  com- 
paratively few  of  those  to  whom  we  owe  this 
[311] 


ADVENTURINGS   IN  THE  PSYCHICAL 

evidence  are  prepared  to  admit  that  such  is  the 
ultimate  outcome  of  their  efforts.  All  the  same, 
the  evidence  is  there,  not  simply  justifying,  but 
rendering  logically  necessary,  the  hypothesis  of 
a  continuous,  unitary  ego,  inclusive  of,  and  su- 
perior to,  all  changing  selves  of  outward  mani- 
festation, and  possessing  powers  thus  far  little 
utilized;  but,  under  certain  conditions,  utilizable 
for  our  material,  intellectual,  and  moral  better- 
ment. 

I  have,  in  fact,  in  the  previous  chapters  pre- 
sented much  of  the  evidence  supporting  this 
view.^  All  the  phenomena  of  subconscious  mental 
action  —  as  variously  exliibited  in  telepathy, 
crystal  vision,  automatic  writing  and  speaking, 
the  cure  of  disease  by  wholly  mental  means  — 
point  unmistakably,  I  am  persuaded,  to  the 
existence  of  a  superior  self  to  which  the  ordinary 
self  of  everyday  life  stands  in  much  the  same 
relation  as  does  the  secondary  seK  of  a  hysterical 
patient  to  the  ordinary,  normal  self  of  a  healthy 
person. 

'  See  also  my  book,  "  The  Riddle  of  Personality,"  especially 
pp.  69-70,  159-162. 

[312] 


THE  LARGER  SELF 

Not  all  the  faculties  of  the  larger  self  —  for  in- 
stance, the  faculty  involved  in  telepathic  action 
—  seem  to  be  adapted  for  ready  employment  here 
on  earth.  Wliich  would  argue,  of  course,  for  a 
future  state  in  which,  freed  from  all  hampering 
limitations  of  the  body,  such  faculties  will  have 
full  manifestation. 

But  most  assuredly,  as  the  findings  of  the 
psychopathologists  indicate  plainly,  some  among 
these  hidden  powers  are  amply  available  for  use 
here  and  now,  and  may  be  so  employed  as  to 
enable  the  self  of  ordinary  consciousness  to  be- 
come less  liable  to  disintegration,  to  ward  off 
and  conquer  disease,  to  develop  mental  attain- 
ments of  a  high  order,  to  solve  life's  varying 
problems  with  a  sureness  and  success  sadly 
lacking  to  most  of  us  at  present. 


[313 


INDEX 


Aboulia,  case  of,  259-264. 
Angus,  Miss,  crystal-visions  of , 

154-156. 
Automatism,  134-170. 

Badger,  R.,  and  case  of  BCA, 
273  n. 

Barrett,  W.  F.,  and  telepathy, 
64,  100. 

Barzini,  Professor,  and  Eusa- 
pia  Paladino,  173. 

BCA,  case  of,  265-289;  also 
mentioned,  292,  295,  298. 

Bernheim,  H.,  hypnotic  ex- 
periments by,  300-301. 

Bettany,  Mrs.,  vision  seen  by, 
40-41. 

Binet,  A.,  on  personality,  308- 
309. 

Blakeway,  W.,  telepathic  ex- 
perience by,  90-91. 

Boyle,  Mrs.,  case  of,  4.  ♦ 

Bramwell,  J.  M.,  hypnotic  ex- 
periments by,  299-300. 

Brill,  A.  A.,  and  psycho-analy- 
sis, 246-254. 

Burt,  F.  R.,  telepathic  experi- 
ments by,  74,  81-83. 

Cahill,  B.  J.  S.,  dream  creation 
by,  210-211. 

Carrington,  H.,  and  medium- 
istic  frauds,  175-178. 

Clairvoyance,  102-126. 

Cleaveland,  W.  M.,  case  re- 
ported by,  143-146,  148. 

Cobbe,  Miss,  and  the  subcon- 
scious, 202-203. 


Cock  Lane  ghost,  183. 
Corliss,  I.  M.,  trance  medium, 

138-141,  147. 
Cortachy  Castle,  Drummer  of, 

13-17,  47,  48. 
Crawford,    Lord,    and    D.    D. 

Home,  173,  199. 
Crookes,    W.,    and    telepathy, 

63,  97,  98;    and  mediumis- 

tic  phenomena,  181. 
Cross  -  correspondence,      160- 

170. 
Crystal-gazing,  127-131,  154- 

156. 


Dalrymple,  Miss,  and  ghostly 

drummer,  14-15. 
Dickinson,    L.,    case   reported 

by,  156-157  n. 
Dissociation,  230-289. 
Donley,   J.   E.,    and   cases   of 

dissociation,   242-245,   254- 

257. 
Dreams,   telepathic,    106-118; 

of     lost     objects,     121-126; 

problems    solved    in,    204- 

209 ;  creative  unagination  in, 

209-214. 
Dunraven,   Lord,   and   D.   D. 

Home,  173,  199. 


Eardlev,  Lady,  case  of,  39-40, 

56,  57,  90. 
Eastiake,  Lady,  case  of,  4-5. 
Entwistle,  J.  S.  W.,  apparition 

seen  by,  29-31. 

[315] 


INDEX 


Flammarion,  C,  and  telep- 
athy, 63;  and  mediumistic 
phenomena,  181. 

Flournoy,  T.,  and  telepathy, 
G3. 

Forbes,  Mrs.,  automatic  writer, 
160,  167-16S. 

Genius,  new  theory  of,  214- 
215. 

Ghosts,  premonitory,  12-26; 
coincidental,  26-35;  house- 
haunting,  35-38;  experi- 
mental, 42-45;  of  inanimate 
objects,  49-52.  See  also 
Poltergeists. 

Golinski,  C,  telepathic  dream 
by,  116-118. 

Goodrich-Freer,  Miss,  appari- 
tion seen  by,  4-8;  crystal- 
visions  of,  127-131. 

Griffith,  Mrs.,  telepathic 
dream  by,  95-96. 

Gurney,  E.,  alleged  spirit 
messages  from,  160-164,  166. 

Hallucinations,  Census  of,  48, 
49.  See  also  Dissociation, 
Ghosts,  Hypnotism,  Hys- 
teria, Suggestion,  and 
Telepathy. 

Hazard,  Mrs.,  apparition  seen 
by,  26,  27. 

Hilprecht,  H.  V.,  strange 
dream  of,  207-209. 

Hodgson,  R.,  alleged  spirit 
messages  from,  160,  168- 
169;  hyperaesthesia  of,  219- 
220. 

Hohenzollerns,  White  Lady  of, 
12. 

Holland,  Miss,  automatic 
writer,  160,  161-169. 

Home,  D.  D.,  trance  medium, 
173,  199. 

Hughes,  F.  S.,  and  Shropshire 
poltergeist,  188-189. 


Hughes,  Mrs.,  telepathic 
dream  by,  94-95. 

Huse,  Miss,  case  of,  104-106. 

Hyperaesthesia,  principle  of, 
64-65;  cases  of,  121-126, 
216-227. 

Hypnosis,  characteristics  of, 
157,  158,  296-306;  as  aid  in 
treating  disease,  238-244, 
263,  265-289.  See  also 
Post-hypnotic  Commands, 
and  Suggestion. 

Hj'slop,  J.  H.,  telepathic  ex- 
periments by,  67-69,  84; 
also  mentioned,  113,  131. 

Hysteria,  and  poltergeists, 
189-195;  and  physical  phe- 
nomena of  spiritism,  196  and 
n;  modern  theories  and  treat- 
ment of,  233-289. 

Jackson,  E.,  apparition  seen 
by,  33-35. 

James,  W.,  and  Huse  case, 
104-106;  and  Mrs.  Piper, 
149;  also  mentioned,  64,  71, 
72. 

Janet,  P.,  and  modern  treat- 
ment of  hysteria,  236-242, 
259-264 ;  also  mentioned, 
232,  283. 

Johnson,  Miss,  and  experi- 
ments in  cross-correspond- 
ence, 162-167. 

Justine,  dissociation  of,  236- 
242. 

Lamont,   Miss,  and  haunting 

of  Petit  Trianon,  8-12,  53- 

55. 
Lang,  A.,  and  crystal-gazing, 

154-156. 
Langtrj^,    J.,    apparition    seen 

by,  22-26,  57. 
Liebeault,  A.  A.,  and  hypnotic 

experiments,  300-301,  303- 

305. 


316 


INDEX 


Li^geois,  Doctor,  hypnotic  ex- 
periment by,  303-306. 

Lodge,  O.,  and  telepathy,  63, 
100,  101;  and  Mrs.  Piper, 
150-153;  and  spiritistic  hy- 
pothesis, 170. 

Lombroso,  C,  and  Eusapia 
Paladino,  172-173,  199. 

Lumley,  Mrs.,  case  of,  49. 

M.,  Mrs.,  apparition  seen  by, 
35-38,  55. 

Marcelle,  dissociation  of,  259- 
264,  283. 

Maries,  F.,  telepathic  experi- 
ence of,  114-116. 

McKechnie,  C.  C,  appari- 
tion seen  by,  27-29. 

Miles,  Miss,  telepatliic  ex- 
periments by,  74-81. 

Mompesson  ghost,  183. 

Morison,  Miss,  and  haunting 
of  Petit  Trianon,  8-12,  53- 
55. 

MorselU,  H.,  and  telepathy, 
64;  and  Eusapia  Paladino, 
173. 

Moses,  W.  S.,  experimental 
apparition  seen  by,  73-74; 
mediumship  of,  182  and  n. 

Muscle  reading,  65. 

Myers,  F.  W.  H.,  and  telep- 
athy, 100;  alleged  spirit 
messages  from,  160,  161- 
163,  166-169;  also  men- 
tioned, 308  n. 

Newnham,  P.  H.,  hj^jeraes- 
thesiaof,  220-221. 

Paladino,  E.,  trance  medium- 
ship  of ,  171-173,  196  TO,  199. 

Personality,  cases  of  second- 
ary and  multiple,  259-289, 
292-295;  conflicting  theo- 
ries as  to,  290-313. 


Petit  Trianon,  haunting  of,  8- 
12,  53-55. 

Piper,  Mrs.,  automatic  writer, 
149-154,  160,  168-169. 

Podmore,  F.,  on  telepathy, 
100;  and  poltergeists,  190- 
194;   also  mentioned,  41. 

Poltergeists,  2,  182-195. 

Post-hypnotic  commands,  ex- 
ecution of,  298-306. 

Prince,  M.,  and  case  of  BCA, 
265-289;  hypnotic  experi- 
ment by,  301-303;  also 
mentioned,  52,  53,  298. 

Psychopathologv,  principles 
and  methods  of,  230-289. 

R.,  Mrs.,  case  of,  301-303. 

Ramsden,  Miss,  telepathic  ex- 
periments by,  74-81. 

Reeves,  H.  E.,  apparition  seen 
by,  31-32. 

Reid,  T.,  on  personality,  291- 
292. 

Ribot,  T.,  on  personality,  307- 
308. 

Richet,  C,  and  telepathy,  63. 

Robinson,  Mrs.,  telepathic  ex- 
perience of ,  113-114. 

Ruttan,  Mrs.,  case  reported 
by,  22-26. 

Sidgwick,  H.,  alleged  spirit 
messages  from,  160,  168. 

Sinclair,  B.  F.,  telepathic  ex- 
periment of,  42-43. 

Spiritism,  statistics,  134;  rea- 
sons for  vitality  of,  135-137; 
trance  mediumship  in,  137- 
143,  158-159,  171-182; 
hysteria  and,  194-196. 

Stevenson,  R.  L.,  dream  crea- 
tion by,  211-214. 

Subconscious,  the,  51-57,  64- 
69,  121-132,  158-159,  201- 
229,  232-289. 

Suggestion,  in  trance  medium- 


[317] 


INDEX 


ship,  157-159,  196-197;  in 
treatment  of  disease,  234— 
289;  in  experimental  hyp- 
nosis, 297-306. 

Telepathy,  experiments  in,  42- 
46,  67-83,  119;  cases  of 
spontaneous,  58-63,  87-96, 
106-118;  and  trance  me- 
diumship,  147-149,  153- 
156,  160-170;  theories  re- 
garding, 84-86,  97-100. 

Thompson,  Mrs.,  automatic 
writer,  160. 

Titus,  Mrs.,  case  of,  105-106. 

Tout,  C.  H.,  mediumistic  ex- 
periences of,  158-159. 

Turner,  G.  L.,  case  of,  49-51. 

Usher,  F.  L.,  telepathic  ex- 
periments by,  74,  81-83. 

Vaux-Royer,  Mme.,  telepathic 
experiment  by,  70-71. 


Verrall,        Miss,        automatic 

writer,  160,  168. 
Verrall,        Mrs.,        automatic 

writer,  160,  162-169. 

Wallace,  A.  R.,  and  medium- 
istic phenomena,  181. 

Wedgwood,  Mrs.,  telepathic 
dream  by,  106-108. 

Wesermann,  Herr,  telepathic 
experiment  by,  43-45. 

Wesley,  S.,  poltergeist  expe- 
rience of,  183. 

West,  Mrs.,  telepathic  dream 
by,  111-113. 

Woodds,  Knocking  Ghost  of 
the,  17-22,  47. 

Wright,  Miss,  automatic  mes- 
sages by,  144-146,  148. 

Wyman,  W.  H.,  case  reported 
by,  225-227. 

Yoimg,  A.  K.,  telepathic 
dream  by,  108-111. 


318 


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